A Jump In Time
by Chidlywhoo
Summary: After the events in Sonic Heroes Sonic decides he needs a break. However things don't turn out as expected. Future fic. AU After Sonic Heroes. WIP
1. The Begining

Author's notes: Okay my first shot at a fanfic based in the Sonic World. And in all honesty I haven't a clue how it looks to others. In all honesty I don't know if I'll continue to write this, I just want to see what kind of a reaction it will get. All reviews wanted, even those criticisms and flames. I want to know your HONEST opinions about this. I rewrote the start and this is a repost of it with extra included. I don't own Sonic or any of the original characters. However there are some that are mine, I'll list them next chapter when they're relevant. Opinions appreciated.

Enjoy. And please review.

Chid.

Post Heroes, Before Shadow

Edit: I would like to mention that one by one all chapters are undergoing an edit. This is to ensure that all my mistakes are corrected and problems I see as a writer are sorted.

So, feel free to enjoy the story again for those who have read before and to those who haven't? Enjoy the story!

Also I'd like to apologize for the lack of new chapters of late, chapter 13 keeps going on walks and then completely vanishes. I promise you I'm trying to sort it out before my brain dies completely on this idea and I end up with a second unfinished story. My apolagizes.

* * *

Sonic ran. He'd had enough of the city and half of the world. He was going exploring to find somewhere away from the mass of humans and their problems. He had been through enough and deserved a break. That plus it'd take Eggman a few weeks before he made up some new plan and Sonic intended to enjoy every moment of rest and relaxation he could get.

He ran past the ruins and past the forests, he didn't stop running until he was in the middle of a forest he didn't recognise, so it had to be half way around the world. He looked around at its strange plants and smiled, no one would be able to find him here. Well maybe Tails might be able to spot him when flying through but it would take him ages just to get here.

However the relaxation didn't last, a week later Sonic was bored, he'd been all over the forest from one end to the other and had done everything he could think of. He jogged back to where he'd made himself at home, a clearing in the centre of the forest. He stopped and looked at the clearing. Where there had been a fire and his hammock, there was now a large golden ring glowing brightly in the middle of it. Curiously Sonic walked over, the ring crackled and sparks shot out. Sonic jumped back and before he knew what was happening the ring was trying to suck him in!

"Not a chance. I'm the fastest thing in the world" Sonic said loudly and ran, his legs moving faster and faster until they became a blur. Yet he was still moving towards the ring! He sped up, trying to reach the speed of sound. If he made it nothing could catch him then!

The ring increased the power in its pull and blades of grass came flying at him from all over. He swatted trying to keep his focus on running as fast as he could. He had grip on the floor to keep running but when the stones and dirt started flying he was pelted all over from the bits and pieces that were being sucked in by the ring.

However as the ground under his feet started to be sucked into the ring he started to loose his grip. It was no use, if he kept this up he'd either be smacked in the face by something or fly into the ring anyway. He ducked and dodged but a particularly large chunk of earth shot out from under his feet and the ring sucked him in whilst he was airborne taking him to wherever it was. Sonic figured that it wouldn't take long for him to get back again; maybe a trip into the unknown would be interesting.

He landed amongst the piles of dirt grass and stones that the ring had sucked in. He looked around, bright colours all over the place.

"Oh great, the Special Zone" He muttered, stood up and brushed himself off, he knew what the Special Zone was like and that it would take him forever to find a ring out of here. They had a nasty habit of moving around and never being in the same place twice, it was a luck thing more than anything else. 'Oh well' he thought 'better get moving, if Eggman finds I'm gone then he'll take advantage of that'

So with that Sonic started to run off to find himself a ring to get home by, and if he found something interesting to do along the way even better.

Sonic didn't really think it would take all that long to find a ring, however in the end it had taken him about 20 days to find and go through one, although days were hard to count in the Special Zone. So when he'd finally found one and managed to get through it, he had done so without a second thought. He had been reminded as to why he couldn't stand the Special Zone and usually avoided it as much as possible.

He landed shamefully on his backside but didn't even give himself the chance to pause and flipped up, dusted himself off and looked around. He was on a stretch of barren land, no grass or trees, nothing that suggested any kind of life on the land. He looked across the horizon and saw plumes of smoke rising into the dark and cloudy sky in various places. Sonic frowned, something wasn't right here and as the world saving hedgehog, it was up to him to find out just what was going on.

A short and very speedy trip later Sonic was on the outskirts of a town, although this was like no town he remembered seeing before. His eyes were greeted with large grey buildings with grey streets and grey plumes of disgusting looking smoke pouring out of various factory looking buildings that made up half of the town. Sonic was appalled at what he was seeing, and he wondered where he'd come out. This couldn't be anywhere on the planet he had seen before, this looked like something Eggman would have designed rather than a city he had been in and knew well.

Sonic dashed off to another town and found it in almost exactly the same way. A clock sounded in the fifth town he visited letting him know that it was midday or midnight. Sonic guessed that it was midday, despite the sky being grey and dark he knew that it couldn't have been night because street lamps he could see would have been lit and the stars would be out.

He left the town and looked around trying to understand what was going on and in the end he dashed off in the direction of the coast, if he could find that quickly then he could head home and tell his friends what he'd seen. He could imagine Tails' face when he said about the factories spewing who knows what into the air whilst Knuckles would be appalled at the lack of greenery. No matter what others said Knuckles was a naturalist at heart, one look at his island said enough.

The coast wasn't too hard to find but when he got there he was appalled at the colour of the water, the sea, which had been blue the last time he'd checked, was now more of a green and yellow. He considered cupping some in his hands and taking a closer look but from what he could see and smell standing next to it, well he'd rather not. Whatever was going on was wrong on more than a few levels. He knew he had come out of the Special Zone in a different place than where he had gone in but there was no chance he was anywhere BUT home. So what was going on?

Sonic sped down the beach as fast as his legs would take him until he finally spotted the familiar cove that belonged to Emerald Beach. He'd been there a fair few times and it was a cool place to hang, assuming that Amy wasn't around or trying to hug him, which was preferable. However when he skidded to a stop the sea was still as discoloured as it had been when he'd stopped at the coast before and the city was as bad as the others he'd seen. Sonic entered the city and walked through its streets to see if he could see what was wrong.

"Halt Peasant" Came an order, Sonic turned around to see a group of 5 robots looking at him, and the centre one which had 'spoken' to him.

"Yo." Greeted Sonic with a short wave of one of his hands.

"Why are you not wearing standard issue clothing Peasant?" It asked. Sonic looked at the robot confused, what was this thing going on about? He shrugged and then realised what the robot had called him

"Peasant? You know who you're talking to right?" He asked. The robot turned to the others and they buzzed for a few moments before they started to advance on him.

"Prepared to be punished Peasant." They ordered in unison. Sonic shrugged at the robots and then jumped into the air at them. Soon the robots were in pieces on the floor. Sonic kicked some of the bits of metal scrap wondering what was going on. It had only been 20 or days or so, so how come the world seemed to have changed so badly?

"Psst, hey hedgehog" Came a teenagers voice. Sonic looked over to see who was speaking. In the shadows of an alley stood a dark green hedgehog wearing a grey body suit.

"Hey kid, that does not suit you." Sonic said waving a hand at the suit.

"Unless you want the fleet on you I suggest you follow me hedgehog." The green hedgehog said. Sonic raised an eyebrow at him.

"I leave for a few days and everyone forgets who I am. The name's 'Sonic the Hedgehog', kid. Better remember that," He said taking some steps towards the alley.

"Sonic? That's original 'bout 20 years ago all the parents were calling their kids that, in memory of the 'oh so wonderful' Sonic the Hedgehog. But hey that's beside the point, lets get you into the underground." He said and walked down the alley. Sonic shrugged; perhaps this kid had been dropped on his head when he was small, then again he might be able to say what was going on.

"Stay right there kid. I'll be back in 10" Sonic said before dashing off without hesitation. He was out of the city within a minute and was dashing towards Mystic Ruins. Tails' cabin was there and if anyone was going to have answers it was Tails, that smart kid always had answers for him and he'd love to know what he had to say about all of this.

Sonic skidded to a stop where the train platform was, or as he could now see, used to be. There was nothing but even more barren ground and, upon the mound of earth that had been Tails' hut was now a factory.

"What's been going on here?" Shouted Sonic. He turned on the spot a few times before dashing back into the city and to the alley where the kid had been, maybe he knew. So far he was the only other actual person he'd seen. He hadn't even seen a human and they massed the globe. Sonic didn't know if he should be worried about that, then again he had other things on his mind right now. Tails was one and the other was the answer to exactly what was going on around here!


	2. A Familiar Face Amoungst the Grey

Author's notes: Okay second chapter for you. A whole 1 review? Is my story that bad or is it cos you're not sure how it's going? I want your opinions good and bad. Simple as that guys and girls. Oh well. Same as always, don't own any of the Sonic characters. However, I do own Mania, Lana and Tilani. So there.  
Sorry this is a repost because of errors in the story which I've only just noticed. Only subtle ones but they needed to be changed. Sorry. ((On an extra note, thanks for my second and third review, just to let you know Shadow's past, or future depends at whose point of view you take, unfolds later. Okay?))  
Enjoy

Edit: I edited this chapter a while back and thought I'd put it up, obviously not and so finally here it is. Good news though, thanks to unknown circumstances my muse has returned and so future chapters should start to emerge from the depths of my brain once again. So, keep half an eye out.

And please review

Chid

* * *

"Okay kid, what's the deal?" Sonic asked when he stopped in the alley. Though there was no green hedgehog anymore. Sonic frowned and looked and then started to walk down the alley looking around. "Okay kid where have ya gone?" Sonic asked loudly.

"If you're looking for Mania, he's slipped away, but what about you? He said your name is Sonic." Sonic looked up to find where the distinctly female voice was coming from. "Can you live up to the reputation that hedgehog left behind, can you save the world? Or will you be like the rest, wimps?" Sonic located the source of the voice; they were standing on a fire escape looking down at him. Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Just tell me where's Tails." Sonic said, looking around the rest of the alley in case and then waved one of his hands in general, "Cos Tails is the one who gives me straight answers."

"Miles Prower?" the female asked pausing to think and then continued. "No one knows where. Look, just follow me and lets get you underground." She jumped off of the fire escape and landed a few feet from Sonic, he took a look at her. She was a female hedgehog, aqua in colour and wearing one of the grey suits that the other hedgehog had. She walked down the alley away from him and Sonic followed, silently and in thought, for a change. They got to a turning point and she led Sonic to the right and then at the next two she took lefts. She paused in the middle of an alleyway, crouched down in the middle of it and pulled away a piece of wet and half rotten cardboard box and just slid out of sight. "Come on already. Squads'll be all over the place soon." Sonic shrugged and stepped over to see a hole. He jumped down it without a second thought.

"What about Knuckles?" Sonic asked as he looked at the girl.

"Location unknown." Sonic looked troubled, his friends were missing and the world had gone crazy. Only one of his best friends was left, was he too missing?

"What about Shadow?" The aqua hedgehog stopped and looked at Sonic then started to lead again the way through the sewers. Sonic was curious, "What's happened to Shadow? Or Amy, Amy Rose?" He asked suddenly remembering about the pink hedgehog that always seemed to follow him around relentlessly.

"Amy Rose was roboticised 15 years ago. And no one in the Freedom Fighters mentions the traitors name." The aqua hedgehog said coldly, Sonic raised his hands in defeat although he was certainly perplexed. She paused at a grating and knocked on the bars three times before jumping over the sewers river and knocking five times on the grating there.

"What is going on here Lana? Who is this blue hedgehog?" A cold but distinctly different female voice came from another grate a little further on.

"Peace Tilani. He says his name is Sonic so I thought that I'd better hand him in before the emperor catches wind of him and freaks out." Lana said back walking over to the grate and pulling it away to reveal a tall black-cloaked figure that seemed to blend into the darkness of the background, Sonic squinted at her and saw that she wore a veil under the hood. This confused him.

"Why are you covered like that? Even humans didn't cover that much. And what's with the grey suits?" Both girls turned and looked at him, glaring. He took a step back in defeat and muttered that girls were twitchy as the two started to chatter.  
Sonic shook his head at the two and wondered once again about his friends.

"You want to take him to see Rouge!" The one called Tilani shouted and Sonic looked over at them.

"You guys know Rouge? How is she?" He asked simply. He never thought about Rouge the jewel-thieving bat. The two once again looked at him. Lana raised an eyebrow at Tilani and she sighed and muttered something and walked off down the large pipe.

"Come on Sonic, it's not much further until the base." Lana stepped into the pipe and held the grating back for Sonic.

Sonic didn't really pay attention to where they were going, he kept trying to get answers from the two girls but they kept on telling him to hush up or that they wouldn't tell him anything. Sonic would have protested but there was information to be had where they were going and it was when they were almost there before he realised that he didn't have a clue where he was so if they walked off he would be lost.

Tilani disappeared suddenly but Lana kept on leading the way. She did however stop in front of a ladder that didn't look stable but it held Lana as she climbed up and pushed something out of the way letting a beam of artificial light shine down right into Sonic's eyes which had just gotten used to the dim light. He covered them and kept blinking until he could take it and looked up to see Lana's face looking down at him.

"Here Sonic, end of the line." She said and he climbed up the ladder carefully and looked at where it had lead him.

It looked like a square room but it had wood all around, floor ceiling and walls. Except for a metal door, camera and a small set of holes in the wall near the door.

"Where are we?" He asked looking around for any signs of something he might recognise.

"The Freedom Fighters headquarters." Lana said softly. She pulled the ladder into the room and then closed the flap over the hole and placed the ladder to the side. Lana walked up to the metal door and something clicked, she held it open and waved for Sonic to go through, he did so and heard his shoes hit metal. This room was the same as the one before except that the walls were all metal like the floor and ceiling. There was another identical door on the other side and a couple of cameras scanning the room pointed themselves at him. Sonic's eyes looked from one to the other. This was unsettling.

Lana closed the door behind her as she stepped inside and the door locked itself. They waited for a minute or two, Sonic was about to ask when the door in front of them clicked and clunked before opening and in stepped a tall bat clad in exactly the same outfit Sonic had seen her in when they'd first met Shadow. The only noticeable differences were bags under her eyes and a few grey hairs.

"Okay Lana, what's this all about? Tilani said that you've got another hedgehog whose name is ..." She'd been looking at Lana until then, she turned her head and looked at the blue hedgehog who was grinning. "Sonic." She said breathing out in shock.

"Hey Rouge. What is going on here?" He asked. Rouge just stared for the grand total of 5 seconds before her face paled and she started shouting at Lana.

"What in the world have you done Lana?! I always told you that one-day Robotnik would create a hedgehog clone of Sonic, that he'd use to infiltrate our base and finally finish us off. Haven't you listened to a word I've ever said?" Rouge turned back to Sonic and pulled some kind of gun from a holster Sonic couldn't see and aimed it at his head. "Give me one good reason that you're the real Sonic." She said giving him a chance. Sonic knew that he was fast but at this distance he was far too close for him to move out of the way of a bullet. He thought quickly and shrugged.

"Well when we were in the Ark after all of that stuff you and Knuckles chatted and you were flirting. As you were after I defeated Metallix." Sonic said coolly and looked at Rouge. Her eyes were showing uncertainty with a hint of hope. "You guys gonna stop messing around and date or what?" To this Rouge lowered her gun.

"No. He has someone else. He has for the last 12 years." Sonic looked confused at that. Knuckles didn't have a girlfriend; he had a pole too far up his butt for one, and for 12 years? No that didn't make any sense at all.

"Look Rouge, what's going on here? I go for a couple of weeks and the worlds gone crazy! Even Eggman can't have done all that pollution in that time!" Rouge now looked baffled as she put away her gun and looked at Sonic carefully before shouting for someone to open the door.

"Lana get something to eat, find Mania and I want you both back on the surface and keeping an eye on the alleys. Sonic you're coming with me; lets get you to the gym. I'll explain as best I can there whilst you have a medical." She started off through the door. Sonic rolled his eyes, this was getting annoying and he was still as clueless as he had been when he'd landed flat on his face. Sonic jogged over to Rouge and walked just behind her as she lead the way through metal corridors.

"You see..."


	3. The Changes Time Can Bring

Authors Notes:  
  
Finally the third chapter. So how's things so far? A new review! Yay. Just to let you know Celestial the Hedgird you find out in this chapter, plus others. Heh. Kind funny cos I'd already finished this chapter the day I finished the second chapter. Weird. But I don't mind. Thanks for the review. Opinions are as wanted as ever. Beta reader would be nice.  
  
I still don't own the official characters. Never will otherwise I'd have Shadow, he rocks!  
  
Anyway Enjoy!

Reviews always wanted.

Chid

* * *

"You see ... twenty years ago Sonic the Hedgehog took a holiday as a break from saving the world. Miles knew where he was but when he was needed a month or so later Miles couldn't find him anywhere. A worldwide search went out for the hero hedgehog. However no matter how much they looked they couldn't find him. Miles never gave up hope, Knuckles stayed on the Floating Island permanently so that he could keep the chaos emeralds and the Master Emerald from Robotnik's hands. Shadow and Amy started all of this, and then Miles helped for a while. Amy always said that 'this was what Sonic would expect us to do' she however gave up hope after 5 years and in the same mission that Shad...the traitor betrayed us and Robotnik took Amy captive. We later found out that she'd been robotsized." Sonic looked upset, could it be that 20 years had passed whilst he'd been gone? He had never thought that Eggman would get his robotsized on one of the gang. Let alone Amy. He didn't hate her, she just bugged him in her own cute way but he'd never wished she'd be robotsized. Rouge continued. "I'd already joined early on and found myself in the position of leader." Rouge paused and opened a door labelled 'gym'  
  
"Cream. I've got someone here to go through a medical," She said loudly, Sonic looked around. 

"Did you just say Cream? Cream as in Cream the rabbit and her Chao Cheese?" He asked looking at what was in the room, from what he could see there were climbing frames and a few treadmills and plenty of mats lay out on the floor. And that was looking out from inside a corridor like bit they were in at the moment. An Angel Chao popped its head around the corner and looked at Rouge and then at Sonic.

"Chao? Chao...CHAO!" and then disappeared back around the corner leaving Sonic feeling like a headache was coming on like one always did when he thought too much. The Angel Chao came back around the corner pulling on a young woman rabbit's arm.

"Cheese what has gotten into you?" The rabbit said and then looked at Rouge and Sonic as the Chao let go of her arm and landed back on the floor. "Another new recruit?" The rabbit looked at Sonic up and down inspecting him. "It can't be!" She said and looked at rouge who nodded and then the rabbit gaped. "But it can't be Sonic. This hedgehog looks no older than 16 at the most. Sonic would be 36. And everyone searched the world over. It just can't be him." The rabbit turned to Rouge. "Wasn't it you who said that one day Robotnik would crate a robot that would be so like Sonic we'd believe it was him?"  
  
Rouge nodded but then walked out of the corridor shrugging.

"I know. And I thought it was one of them. But... He knew." Sonic looked at her and followed looking at the gym and whistled. And then turned to Rouge.

"Knew what? That you and Knux flirted? It wasn't exactly like you hid it," He said.

"Robotnik wasn't around either of the times that you mentioned. He couldn't have known. And for some reason that even I don't understand I know that its you." Rouge said looking at him. She then looked at the rabbit. "Cream you have to understand, put aside all the years of grief and look at him, remember how you saw him all those years ago and try to tell me it isn't him."  
  
Sonic looked at Cream and held his arms out as she looked even more closely at him. Sonic took the chance to look at Cream; she was wearing a grey bodysuit that only left her head and neck free to the air. She wore sensible shoes for walking around in and her ears were down to her shoulders like they had been, her eyes were the same colour yet they showed years of seeing things a young child shouldn't see and be subjected to.  
  
"What's happened?" Sonic asked. It was Cream, he knew it was but this rabbit was just taller than him and older than 6, Cheese was an Angel Chao, and in those eyes of hers were hurt and pain, suffering and few joys and only a hint of hope that was getting bigger.  
  
"I told you Sonic, twenty years ago you disappeared and you've just appeared again and have twenty years of history to catch up on." Sonic cringed at that and looked at Rouge.

"You mean take lessons? Like a human?" He asked her. Rouge laughed, Cream looked at Rouge shocked.

"Rouge you laughed?" Cream said unbelieving, she couldn't remember the last time the bat had laughed. This was a good sign.

"Humans are slaves, as are we. Robotnik flushed out all the villages and settlements of our kind and we now mingle with the humans, according to Robotnik we're below humans, and I mean in more ways than height. And those who are not part of the Freedom Fighters are slaves to do as he wishes." Rouge explained. "Humans no longer go to schools, they are taught Robotnik's ways whilst they work in the factories and in his palaces." Sonic shook his head and looked at the treadmill, he wanted to run fast but his last experience with one of those had changed him from brown to blue which lead to the events meaning that the evil man known as Robotnik, although he had nicknamed him Eggman, was born. He'd been wary of them since.  
  
"Sonic." Cream said quietly and cupped Sonic's head in her hands and looked into his eyes. "My mother, Robotnik uses her as a personal slave to entertain him by dancing. I've seen her myself. Promise me Sonic. Promise me that you'll save her, and free Amy. And if you see that traitor you'll kick his butt." She said. Sonic nodded,

"I promise I will Cream. I'll save your mom and Amy." He said nothing about Shadow, Sonic had his doubts and as far as he knew Shadow the Hedgehog he wouldn't betray anyone to Eggman.  
  
Cream let go of his head and then silence passed around them all.  
  
"He'll need a new name. If we go around calling him Sonic and Robotnik finds out he'll send all of his armies after him to make sure there is no threat." Cream said finally breaking the silence. Rouge nodded but then her face paled a little.

"What about Lana she already knows?" Rouge pointed out, "Probably Mania too if she's told him." Rouge said thinking, she never trusted Lana but then again as everyone kept pointing out she only truly trusted Cream, Miles and Knuckles. Cream knew about Knuckles but the rest of the group just thought that he was living somewhere unknown in the world or didn't even exist and that Miles was living somewhere on the planet and found his own way of transporting the latest machines here.  
  
"Guys, care to explain this place to me or shall I go and hunt for Tails who will explain it to me in a way I understand?" Sonic said looking between them as he stretched his arms, suddenly feeling restless.  
  
"This is the headquarters for the Freedom Fighters" Rouge said, she opened her mouth to continue when a voice came from nowhere.

"Rouge, you're needed in the main control room." It was a male voice of about 18 years roughly, Sonic figured. But it was an unfamiliar one. Rouge looked at a speaker and frowned.

"Cream I'll leave you to explain to him, I've got to go." She turned to Sonic. "I'll be back, don't leave this room until I say so, you might be back and the fastest thing in the world twenty years ago but I'm the leader here and there are things almost as fast as you on the surface. Plus you need a new name. Got it?" She said, she didn't wait for an answer as she flapped her wings and flew off down the corridor bit and out of the door very fast.  
  
"So then Sonic. Lets get this medical over and done with shall we? And whilst we do it lets think up a new name for you okay?" Cream said cheerfully.


	4. A New Name and Food

Authors Notes: Well I have no more reviews. :( More would be appreciated.

Slina is mine whilst the nickname was something very unoriginal but it's suitable. I still don't own any of the original characters.  
  
Enjoy

Review

Chid

* * *

Cream took Sonic around the room bit by bit until an hour later Sonic was slightly sweating and his stomach was complaining that it hadn't been fed in a long time. And he had to agree with it and that it was time for a break, yet Cream wasn't impressed. 

"All I am asking for Sonic is chin-ups. It is not exactly hard you know." She said slowly not impressed.

"Hey I know they're easy Cream it's just I haven't eaten anything all day I'm starving" He protested.

Cream shook her head. 

"Even if you hadn't finished your medical I couldn't let you go, you heard what Rouge said. We haven't figured out a new name for you yet."

"Sonic has always been good enough for me. Why should I be called by anything else?" He said raising an eyebrow whilst casually sticking one of his fingers into his ears and seeing if there was anything within that shouldn't be there. Cream sighed, she never remembered Sonic being this difficult but then again the current situation was nothing like those situations they got into all those years ago, for one there were plants trees and forests out there in the world. Now they only were abundant on the Floating Island.

"Well how about an anagram?" She suggested, only to get a blank look from Sonic. She rolled her eyes at that. "Shuffle the letters around to make a new word, or in this case name?" She said and added hopefully, "that way you could still be Sonic but Robotnik wouldn't know it." Sonic shrugged and Cream just pointed at the bar for chin-ups.

"If you have enough energy to argue with me you have enough to do chin-ups. Move" She told him. Sonic glared at her but then sighed and walked over to the bar and started doing as many chin-ups in however long Cream was going to demand.

Another half an hour of exercise and cream let Sonic rest. 

"Well you're in perfect psychical shape. I don't doubt that you could break the speed of sound." Sonic's stomach interrupted with a very loud grumble, which made Sonic shiver.

"Yeah, only after a banquet I'm afraid Cream." He said and rubbed his stomach and looked at Cream almost pleadingly. "Any chance of food yet?"

"No. You need a new name first." She told him seriously.

Rouge walked in and looked at them both. 

"So Cream, is he fit?" She asked. Cream looked at Rouge and nodded.

"Fit as fit can be. He's broken a couple of records and he was hungry when he did them."

"Yeah so any chance of some grub yet or do you want a fainted me?" Sonic asked almost waspishly, if he didn't get some food soon he might just pass out.

"Do you have a new name?"

"No." Sonic glared

"Then you don't leave this room. I guess I could go and get you something." Sonic raised an eyebrow; he could see a very large but here. "But you need a new name first." There it was. He rolled his eyes and laid himself flat on the mat he was sitting on. He saw that one coming.

"It's not original but what about S H?" Cream suggested with a shrug. Rouge and Sonic looked at her, Sonic confused. "Sonic Hedgehog, you can just say that you used Sonic as your first name because it seemed like a good idea." Cream added. Rouge smiled and nodded.

"Then you can still be called Sonic and if we enter you into the computers as S H then you'll be safe from Robotnik's wrath." Rouge added, looking at Sonic who shrugged and gave a nod.

"Sure, whatever as long as it means I get to eat something now!" He said. Rouge shrugged,

"Sure thing S H. Lets get you a nice large meal and then I'll show you 'round." Rouge said with a wink. Sonic flipped up and walked after Rouge quickly, once he knew where the kitchen was he'd be able to eat until he was full.  
  
Cream waved goodbye and Cheese sat on Sonic's head until he left, Cheese flew back to Cream as she started to chat to Cheese about Sonic. Or S H as she had to call him now.

"Okay Soni ... S H. It's gonna be weird calling ya that." Rouge added with a smile as she led down metal corridors that lead into wooden ones and back into metal ones.

"What's with all the metal rooms and wooden ones?" Sonic asked.

"What? Oh well we're underground at the moment, and we can only scavenge so much metal so we used whatever wood we had left to build the other rooms. Trees are only grown in certain places." Rouge added sadly.

"What happened to all the forests? What's with all the grey suits?" Sonic asked with a shrug. That headache was creeping back again.

"Robotnik cut down the forests saying that they were disgusting, though he has a few left to build houses for his slaves. And the grey suits? They are the general uniform of the slaves, only a few are given permission to wear colours other than grey." Rouge informed him, sadly.  
  
She opened a door and a small hall was inside, tables and benches were the furniture. A wall long hatch was at a short end of the rectangle room. A human teenager stood there, the only occupant of the room.  
  
"Hey Slina. What's for lunch today?" Rouge asked walking towards the human, Sonic was already there with a plate held out expectantly.  
  
"Whose this Rouge?" Slina asked.

"New recruit, S H. And he's underfed so give him extra helpings of whatever you've cooked up today" Rouge said with a grin. Slina grinned and nodded, her short black hair was held back by a bag over her hair to keep her hair from the food. Her green gloves picked up various spoons and pinchers and gave S H double helpings of the meal for the day.  
  
"So Slina what is on the menu today?" Rouge asked as she picked up a plate.

"Well there's some baked beans, dried bread, fish chunks and a sausage each. Or in his case two." She said with a weak smile. "We'll need to raid some more warehouses soon, were almost out of bread and the freezers broke down bout one this morning so most of it's defrosting and will need to be eaten today or tomorrow at the latest."  
  
Rouge nodded. "Any festivals due soon?" She asked with a questioning look whilst Slina serves up her portion of food.

"Well the Twentieth year ceremony is due in two days time?" Slina offered.

"Two days time? Wow. I hadn't thought it was that time of the year already." Rouge sighed, and glanced over at Sonic who had sat himself down at the closest table and had been eating away quickly whilst also listening. "Well. This'll be S H's first ceremony, he knows a lot about the fabled hedgehog." Rouge said with a smile and took some cutlery and sat herself next to Sonic. "Don't you S H?" She said.  
  
Sonic looked at Rouge. "What ceremony?"

"Oh, just the one held every year to commemorate the memory of Sonic the Hedgehog. Ten years ago we had everyone who we could get a hold of who had known the great hedgehog to make a short speech about how they knew him and how he had saved the world. A commemoration." Rouge said and then started her food.

"Yeah I guess I know some stuff about him. But you don't have a video or something of the one ten years ago do ya?" He asked after eating his first half of his food. Rouge thought about it and then nodded, paused in her eating and swallowed before speaking.

"Yeah. I'll get Cream to put it on when you're next in the gym. You can watch it whilst you train." She said before tucking into her food, eyes down and looking slightly sad.  
  
Sonic thought about it for a while before he rushed the rest of his food down as fast as he could. It took only a few seconds to finish it all off and he got up and stretched his arms wide.

"Ahhh...much better" He exclaimed with a large grin on his face.

"Okay then Rouge, show me some of Buttnik's robots and I'll smash 'em into pieces. I'm up for some action."  
  
Laughing, Sonic turned around and saw Slina laughing loudly.

"Has he been like living in a hole for the past twenty years?" She said shaking her head and wiping away tears from laughing so hard.  
  
"Hey. I'll have you know" Sonic started but Rouge stood up and glared at him and looked at Slina.

"Like I said, he knows a lot about Sonic. He's been digging up so much information that he kept on setting his mind like Sonic so he could better understand. However he did it a few too many times and often thinks that he IS Sonic." She said pleased at the reasoning that had just popped into her mind. Slina continued to chuckle but nodded.  
  
"Okay then Rouge, if you say he's a nutter in the head I'll accept that, just make sure he keeps a lid on that attitude if Robotnik's around." Slina suggested and went into the depths of the kitchen. Rouge turned back to her food and Sonic looked at Rouge.

"What was that about?" He asked.

"You want to stay alive long enough to help us defeat Robotnik? Then you are S H. Not Sonic. Understand?" She hissed forcefully. Sonic glared and headed for the door.

"I don't need any of this I'll find Eggman on my own and I'll beat him and sort this out right now. Who needs any of this underground crap?" He said waving his arms around.  
  
"Believe it or not S H but you need our help right now. You're in a world you don't know. Robotnik has advanced his technologies many times over in the twenty years that have passed since Sonic left us. We have survived as long as we have by working together and using all our workforces together. The surface is no place for anyone if they are a member of the Freedom Fighters, even if they are wearing a uniform. You leave now S H and you'll see for yourself how bad the world up there can be, and there's no guarantee that we'll be able to protect you. Or that you'll find a way back here." She said slowly and carefully. Sonic stopped and rested his hands on the door and took in a couple of breaths before banging his fists against it once and looked at Rouge.  
  
"Then lead me to Tails. He'll be able to explain it simply to me, I'll just find out what's going on without getting a headache and being bored and once I know I'll go and beat up Eggman and save the world" He said frustrated.

"Miles' location is unknown." Rouge said dully as she finished off her food. Sonic rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling.

"Fine then, what about Knuckles."

"Location unknown if he's even alive." She sighed after a short pause. "Look S H, come with me there's things you need to know."

"More?" He asked looking like he'd already had enough.  
  
Rouge nodded and walked towards his and opened the door and lead down the paths, Sonic followed fuming, whatever she had to say had better be good. She stopped outside another metal door and swiped a card and Sonic heard a lot of beeping noises before the door opened and she stepped inside and held the door open for him.  
  
Inside it was a room, which looked normal, with wallpaper, and furniture that suggested a workroom and a room to relax in at the same time. A few jewels sat on the front of a large desk.

"This is my room. We can talk privately here." She said and closed the door behind him. She sat herself in a large, black and well cushioned chair and looked at Sonic.

"Both Miles 'Tails' Prower and Knuckles are alive and well." She said looking at him as he gaped at her.


	5. The Headache

Authors Notes: Chid again, another cool chapter and another character which is mine, Dan belongs to me okay? I don't own any of the Sonic characters, cos if I did I can assure you Shadow would be staring in his own games. Shadow rocks!  
  
Hehe. Anyway all opinions wanted, in other words Reviews please!  
  
Thanks to Celestial, sonickku and for reviewing. Oh Celestial you may be waiting a while but when Shadow does make a proper appearance all will be revealed. Okay?  
  
Enjoy this next chapter okay?

Don't forget to review

Chid.

* * *

"Both Miles and Knuckles are alive and well." Rouge told him whilst he gaped at her. 

"But didn't you just say?" Sonic asked waving a hand behind him to indicate the food room.

"Only I, Cream and Tilani know that Knuckles is alive and well, Miles is known to be alive but no one knows where apart from Cream and yours truly." She explained leaning back in her chair.

"Why? If Knux is okay then why hasn't he joined in the fight?" Sonic asked flaking out as best he could on a chair in front of Rouge's desk

"Because he is keeping the Floating Island safe along with the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds." Rouge said causally.

"Think about it, would we still be here if Robotnik had a hold of any of the Chaos Emeralds? Imagine what kind of machines he could make that ran off the power of the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic rubbed his face with his hands.

"Well then, what about Tails? Where is he?" He asked slowly.

"Floating Island, he's safe there, he makes us machines and helps Knuckles look after the Island, then once he's made a machine Knuckles brings it down to us and visits for a couple of days before going back."

Sonic just nodded, that headache that had threatened had just started boring into his brain and it was a nasty one.

"Okay fine, twenty years have past and I've a lot to catch up on. Eggman rules the world and you run a group resisting him. Tails and Knuckles live on the Floating Island, Shadow is labelled a traitor and Amy has been robotosized. Right?" He said looking at Rouge with one eye open.

"I guess so sugar," She said with a wink and speaking with that accent of superiority and allurement which he suddenly noticed that she hadn't been using until now. He looked confused at her and she dropped the smile and looked at him seriously "I'm tired Sonic, I've been leading this group for about 15 years. I've seen what happens to those who get caught, I don't want you to be one of them Sonic. Bare with me, what wisdom I can pass onto you is for your benefit so promise me you won't go onto the surface until after the ceremony. I promise a surprise,"

Sonic sighed,

"I've already promised Cream to help and you want me to put that off."

"It's only two days," Rouge protested.

"Fine but show me a place to run or I'm off." He huffed at her.

Rouge shook her head and got up.

"Right I'll take you to a room of your own, I don't think you and Mania would get along, not that anyone gets along with Mania other than Lana. There's a map in there that you should probably learn, the hanger should be big enough for you to run around in." Sonic rolled his eyes as Rouge got up, brushed off her wings, and opened the door. He slid off of the seat and followed, this was getting seriously boring.

"Get some sleep, I know it's only the afternoon but get some sleep in a bed and I'll send the video to Cream for you to watch tomorrow. But you'd better prepare yourself for a workout. She won't go easy on you." That Sonic smiled at.

After walking for a few minutes Rouge could see that Sonic was bored of the same scenery so she picked up the pace and started jogging before she took off and started to fly. Grinning at the chance for a race, even though he knew he could easily win Sonic ran after Rouge and quickly caught up. Rouge slowed down, landed outside another metal door and opened it. She held it open for Sonic who had kept going, skidded and had to jog back to look inside. 

The room was wood; there was a single bed in the middle, a desk to the right of the door against the wall of the corridor. A door on the left side and a long worn out sofa against the left wall next to the other door.

"The door leads to the bathroom, nothing special and no bath. We have showers but you'll probably have to queue for them as everyone shares."

"Apart from you?" Sonic added quickly.

"No. I share one with Cream." Rouge added with a grin.

"Get plenty of sleep hedgehog, you're new and we don't take new kids lightly." Sonic walked into the centre of his room and looked at Rouge.

"Who'd ya think your calling a kid?" He demanded with his arms crossed tapping his right foot on the floor. Rouge laughed at Sonic.

"You kid. You have to remember, I'm at least twenty years older than you now. You're a kid to me" Rouge said before a quick "Night S H." And then closed the door shutting the rest of the world off.

Sonic shook his head and walked over to his bed and collapsed on it. He fidgeted for a while because the mattress was lumpy, but he finally managed to find a position where he felt comfortable. He gave out a heavy sigh, this was just not right. He was here in the future twenty years from the world he knew. The world had gone gaga and now his headache was pounding furiously inside his head, so with a moan he rolled onto his side and tried to get some sleep. ((AN: I was going to end it here but it seemed a bit short so I decided to add some more, see this as bonus stuff. Behind the scenes. Enjoy)) 

Rouge flew through the corridors quite slowly heading towards the gym looking for Cream. She flew past a couple of humans and almost stopped to find out what was going on but she needed to talk to Cream. She'd managed to keep a cool air around Sonic but... She opened the gym door and flew in and saw no one around.

"Cream! Cheese?" She called out.

"Try the medical room" Came a voice, Rouge grabbed her gun from the holster she kept hidden behind her left wing, and she pointed it around whilst looking for where the voice came from. Rouge twitched her ears listening for breathing, whoever they were they were in the room but where? Something tripped and landed on the floor, Rouge's gun was pointed at a shape on one of the mats, it was a figure of a front, and it was someone invisible.

"Dan?" Rogue asked wearily. A purple chameleon phased back into the visible spectrum. Rouge rolled her eyes at the chameleon, "Still as clumsy as ever?" She said with a shake of her head, putting the gun away and walked over offering a hand to help him up.

"Well considering that I managed to get almost the whole way around the room without you knowing where I was before that happened I guess I'm doing pretty damn good." He said getting up on his own. He rubbed his pale yellow horn and gave his grey bodysuit a quick brush down.

"That might be but you still need to be careful, Robotnik doesn't make his robots with heat sensors anymore but there are still ones that have them" Rouge warned.

"Yeah yeah yeah, heard it all before Rouge." Dan looked at Rouge and shook his head before proceeding to perform 5 back flips in a row and changing back to invisible mid way through the last back flip.

"Keep up that attitude and it'll get you into trouble Dan you know that and so do I." Rouge shook her head at him. Dan only really had listened to Espio despite her attempts to get him to listen to her. He was clumsy and could be arrogant which was when he made the most of his mistakes. Sometimes she just wished that he wouldn't go onto the surface however she couldn't stop him, after all, he would be 20 soon and you had to be 13 before you were allowed out to fight.

Rouge sighed and walked off towards the medical room thinking about the age rule. Both Cream and Charmy had been younger than that when they were fighting against Robotnik yet things had changed, she hadn't made the rule; it was Amy who had because she didn't want anyone too young fighting this war, which was starting to seem endless.  
  
Yet now with Sonic back could they finally do it? She didn't know but she hoped so, she'd seen too much pain and suffering for her liking, she had managed to keep the youngest from seeing too much, but Cream? Rouge's eyes started to tear up when she thought of how the poor rabbit had been forced to grow up in such a short time. She would have liked to keep Cream out of all of this but with her mother captive she couldn't. Back then she'd thought Cream weak and so much of a child, but now? She respected the rabbit and her opinions. Which was one of the main reasons she was seeking her out now, she needed someone to chat with about Sonic. She would have with Tails or Knuckles but Tails wasn't going to come off of the Floating Island for another day and a half and Knuckles probably wouldn't come down this time. He wouldn't leave the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds alone for any period of time. Tilani would be heartbroken that she'd have to wait even longer, but she'd forgive like she always did when he went back to the Island. 

She opened the door to the medical room and winced as the smell of disinfectant washed over her making her nose wrinkle in distaste.

"Cream? You alone in here?" She called out looking around.

"Just me and Cheese Rouge." Cream's voice came from her office within the medical room. Rouge headed over there.

"Good, I want to talk to you about S H." She admitted. She closed the office door behind her.


	6. Thoughts On Hope And Some Action

* * *

Authors Notes:

Well reviews are now at a fantastic 11!

I still don't own any of the official Sonic characters

I want to thank everyone who has replied and my Beta Reader who I now have. So most of those silly mistakes I make will be changed now.

Just a quick note: I've written up to chapter 9 now and I've gone brain dead so it may take a while after that's been posted before chapter 10 appears okay?

Enjoy

Review

Chid

* * *

Sonic looked stunned, he'd stopped his exercises a while ago to watch the video of the tribute. His mouth was dry and he was certain he felt tears welling up in his eyes yet he refused completely to even think about letting them fall. He never knew. He'd never thought that it would be possible for the guys to miss him, even Rouge whom he hardly knew.

And hope. They had said that the worlds hope had been shouldered by him, he had never noticed but if he thought back over it all. When Perfect Chaos destroyed Station Square nothing could have taken it down apart from him using the good power of the Chaos Emeralds. Outside the Ark it had been he and Shadow who had defeated the Biolizard sticking out of the front of the nose of the Ark pulling it towards the Earth. But then it had been Shadow who had sacrificed himself because he hadn't thought that there was a point in going on. Sonic had known that he had lots to go back to, his friends and the rest of the world yet Shadow had thought that he had no one.

And then the Metallix, Tails and Knux had helped him out whilst he'd turned invincible to defeat him as Super Sonic.

And then after he'd gone they had failed to defeat Robotnik, had they lost hope? Well from the presentation it seemed that they were holding onto everyone's hope and it was up to them to succeed where they had failed before. They made it seem like it was all a matter of hope.

But if they had failed to win in ten years then how much hope did they all have left?

"S H, are you done doing those one thousand push-ups yet?" Creams voice called out across the gym. He looked over at her and shook his head.

"Nope, not yet Cream. I'm about five off."

"Then why did you stop?" She asked questioningly.

"The video. Did you guys really mean all that you said?"

Cream looked at Sonic and then at the video and nodded. "Every word" She said and gave him a smile. "I hear that Rouge has added you to the line-up for tomorrow's tribute apparently you're an expert who often acts like he's Sonic the Hedgehog himself." She chuckled at that.

"I didn't start that! Rouge just said that. And if I'm supposed to be someone I'm not how can I not know what's been going on? She's saying that S H has been living in these past twenty years when he hasn't. How am I going to deal with this?" He asked after doing a few more press-ups.

"You'll do fine S H, you'll just have to remember to say 'he' and 'him' when you refer to yourself." Cream said reassuringly.

"Yeah but how am I supposed to say that I've always seen Tails as a little brother?" He asked with a shrug getting up.

"Say that you thoughts that perhaps Sonic would have seen Miles that way."

"Miles. Why don't you call him Tails? You used to." Sonic asked, sure Tails' first name was Miles but everyone had called him Tails for as long as he'd known the fox.

Cream looked at the video and stopped it.

"It was two years after you disappeared, when Robotnik was still taking over. Miles flew his latest upgraded ship, powered by a Chaos Emerald, right into battle. He did fantastically well, managing to destroy nearly half of Robotnik's airborne fleet until some of the ships got some lucky hits and blew holes in one of the wings. His ship went down into an uncontrollable spin. Miles only barely managed to eject in time before it crashed into a town and the fire it caused destroyed half of the towns houses and a lot of innocent people died." Cream paused and Sonic was shocked, he had no idea of the numbers but they must have been a lot because Tails wouldn't just let a few lucky shots take him down.

"He survived but when we next saw him he had a cut going from his left ear to his left eye, it turned into a scar which he still has today. After that he told people not to call him Tails but Miles, his proper name. He...he never did say exactly why he changed his mind but after then he became more serious and stopped laughing so much and dedicated himself to his work." Cream made some marks on a piece of paper on a clipboard and then looked around the gym. "Well Sonic ... S H, that's it head out into the corridors and find the obstacle course. Have a go at that. It wouldn't surprise me if you completely broke all of the best records but it's something for you to do. After that you can go and eat at the cafeteria with everyone else."

Sonic nodded and smiled at Cream. "It'll all be okay. Rouge wants me to stay for the tribute thingy and a surprise or something and after that I'll get your mom back okay?" He said. Cream smiled at him and nodded.

"If Rouge means the surprise I think she does you'll like it. And it's okay S H. I've waited this long already I can wait a few more days." She said with a smile and waved at him. "Get going already"

Sonic nodded and walked out of the gym and started to look for this new room. He didn't like being cooped up, and after some food he might check out that hanger Rouge had mentioned yesterday. He'd slept quite well, after all a bed was the best he'd slept in for the past twenty days so he couldn't complain. First thing he'd done when he woke was find a shower. The bathroom containing one wasn't that hard to find and he didn't have to queue thankfully yet when he'd come out there was a queue of about four humans. He'd walked back to his room making sure his ears were clean. He'd roamed around the base before someone had called him over the speakers to report to the gym. Cream had been waiting for him and once he'd entered she'd told others who were training inside to go elsewhere. That's when she'd started to get him to do exercises whilst the video was on.

Now it seemed that it was afternoon and he'd missed breakfast and lunch. As to what time it was exactly he didn't know, it was underground and there were only a few clocks around.

He spotted the room he wanted and entered without really looking around. Once the door had clicked shut he found a set of guns pointing at him.

"The aim is to avoid getting hit" Rouge's voice came from somewhere, but Sonic didn't have time to think about where from as he ran and jumped over the guns, he looked at them and then around. Various guns and machines that looked dangerous were moving around; several were aimed right at him.

"Time to move" He muttered and ran around dodging the firing guns and missiles until he was at the other end of the room. It was a lot bigger than he'd thought it was when he'd first entered.

"Task 1. Find all five medallions." Rouge's voice called out from somewhere. A speaker from the dim crackling sound that followed it. Did that mean he was being watched or was there a program running.

He didn't know but decided that this could be interesting as he started to look for the medallions.

He found the first one hung under a camera that was looking from side to side keeping an eye on things. The second was behind a rack of missile launchers. The third was under an old gun machine, which was almost far too tempting to bust up. The fourth was on a ledge surrounded by mines and the fifth and last was at the bottom of a pool of water. This was the one that Sonic had the most trouble with; he looked down into the water before an explosion behind him flung him into the depths. He sunk like a rock and grabbed the medallion before looking for a way out of the water.

After what seemed almost like an eternity he found a spring and stepped onto it letting it fling him up through the water and back out into the obstacle room. He crashed on the floor and hacked and coughed until he could breath properly again.

"Place the medallions in the basket." Rouge's voice echoed across the room. Sonic looked around and even near the ceiling until he noticed a very small basket, it didn't look any bigger than the medallions themselves, as big as his hand, moving across the ceiling of the room.

"What?" He moaned but then shook himself to get rid of any excess water, stood up holding the five medallions and looked for where it would go next, he could chuck the medallions into it but he'd rather drop them all in there safely.

He looked closely at the wall and around to see that there was a slight curve near the wall closest to the basket. He sped over and up onto the ledge running as fast as he could to the edge of the ledge and then up onto the wall, making sure to keep running fast so he didn't fall off. He got higher and higher as the basket came closer until it was almost within arms reach.

He jumped off of the wall and grabbed the edge of the basket, dropped the medallions into the basket and let go dropping, curled into a ball and bounced slightly as he hit the floor. He uncurled to see the weapons weren't aiming at him; they looked like they were off.

"Well done on completing task 1. Next is task 2: Destroy all robots." Rouge's voice called out. Sonic looked around confused, there weren't any robots...

Various places around the room heads, robot heads were appearing as they were lifted into the room. From what Sonic could see he'd have a lot to deal with, but that was just fine. He could take on an army and beat them all.

A noise, it sounded like a laser powering up. Sonic looked right behind him at one of the guns which had appeared to be turned off. It was turning back on again.

Sonic didn't hesitate anymore and dashed off to another part of the room to start sorting these robots out. A lot of them looked battered, as if they had been smashed and rebuilt one too many times. A lot of them had shields, meaning he'd have to get behind them to roll under which could risk him being shot.

Sonic didn't care. This was going to be fun.


	7. Preperations

Authors Notes:

Thanks to all those who reviewed. Sorry this hasn't come up sooner, I've had some things that needed changing and I HAD sorted this chapter out a long time ago when my Beta had handed me back the reviewed edition. However I've done it again and it's about time this went up.

So here it is. Please review. Bare with me, more chapters soon!

Enjoy

Review

Chid

* * *

It didn't take took long for Sonic to smash all of the robots, whether he smashed through their centres as a ball or got them to shoot each other. He was surprised at how easy it was, if this was a test he was certain that he'd just passed with maximum points.

"Congratulations. Task 2 completed." Rouge's voice called through the speakers. Sonic looked at one of them tapping his foot.

"What next?" He asked waving a hand at the piles of metal he'd made.

"Well for you hedgehog you're going to get some food and then to bed. You need to be up early for tomorrows tribute." Rouge said, this time it was cleaner, as if she'd just said it rather than be recorded.

Sonic rolled his eyes and headed for the door and then for the cafeteria.

He hadn't looked at the map but he followed masses of humans and found that they were all heading for the same place. The cafeteria.

He listened into a few conversations, there was some excitement about the tribute, and there was some talk about an increase of robots on the surface and near misses. He even thought he heard someone mentioning a 'guest speaker' in reference to tomorrow. Sonic shrugged, they probably had heard that he'd be saying something.

He grabbed a plate and was highly tempted to zip ahead in the queue a few places but after a glance and seeing that there wasn't any room for him to zip ahead to, he stayed put. He was squished between two 10-year-old kids who had suddenly spotted him and were asking him a thousand and one questions, not even giving him a chance to answer one before asking the next.

Slina was dishing up food as fast as she could. She spotted Sonic and smiled at him.

"How you settling in S H?" She asked as she dished him up some mashed potatoes and a chilidog.

"Not bad thanks, but I keep getting pestered by two kids who don't know when to shut up." He said ticked off, he knew that the two were probably listening. He hoped so.

"Well S H you're in luck. Rouge wants a word with you after you've had some food so don't keep her waiting k?" Slina said. Sonic nodded, slipped out of the crowd and sat himself down on the edge of a table. He scoffed his food down, left his plate and nudged his way through past more humans back into the corridors. He headed back to his room.

'Where did all these humans come from? They weren't here yesterday' He asked himself as he entered his room, shut the door and collapsed on his bed face first.

"You did great Sonic." Rouge said. Sonic looked up to see the bat sitting on the headstand of his bed.

"Huh?" He asked not really caring.

"I don't think I've seen anyone defeat all the robots so fast without even getting a scratch." She said filing her nails.

"Yeah well what else did you expect from me?" He asked boasting slightly.

Rouge laughed and shook her head.

"Not really but a lot of people will be shocked at how well you did. You might even be marked as the new Sonic. People are gaining new hopes and putting them all into you." She commented.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Sonic sighed and rolled over so he was facing the ceiling. "I never really thought about hope." He admitted.

"Yeah well Sonic. Everybody meant what they said in the tribute and everyone has doubts and hopes. Only a few people every truly loose all hope and it's that complete loss of hope which we've tried to stop happening." Rouge shrugged and flapped her wings. She lifted up and over Sonic until she was over the floor, she landed gently and looked at him. "I thought that my hope was almost all gone, I do every time until Miles sends down one of his machines, but then we get more and more losses and my hopes are dashed again. Yet, I'm wondering now if maybe we can win this war and finally be able to see green hills again, and forests all over the world" She said with hope in her eyes. "Just don't leave again okay?" She looked pleadingly at Sonic.

Sonic looked at her and nodded.

"What else is there? Slina mentioned you wanted a word with me."

"Well firstly I wanted to comment on your fantastic performance in the obstacle room and secondly, what are you thinking of saying tomorrow?"

Sonic looked at her blankly.

"How should I know what I'm supposed to say? And anyway you can't be serious about getting me talking 'bout myself?" He said.

"Why not? You know Sonic the Hedgehog better than anyone ever." She said defending herself.

"Yeah but how. Oh forget it whatever!" He just shouted with a wave of his arms.

"Right, now that we've got that sorted I want you to do a presentation second to last and I'll need you to leave after you've done it so I can introduce you to someone in the group who's also not. He's making the last speech so you shouldn't need to wait long." Rouge said with a glint in her eyes.

"See you tomorrow Sonic" She said and let herself out.

"Weird bat" Sonic commented to himself before sighing and crawling into bed thinking about what he could possibly say about himself without saying it from his own point of view.

"Not another headache!" He moaned shortly before falling asleep.

Sonic woke startled as he heard his name being shouted very loudly from not far away from his ears.

"S H GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED NOW!" Screeched a very pissed off female voice.

Sonic covered his ears and blinked a few times before looking blurrily at a VERY angry Rouge.

"Rouge? Whadaya want?" He muttered rolling over.

To this Rouge pulled away the sheet, which he'd covered himself with.

"AH!" Sonic yelped as a draft of cold air passed him over, he tried to grab the sheet with one hand but then sat up and looked at Rouge holding it.

"Guess what speed boy? The tribute starts in five minutes and you're not at the theatre. It's packed and if you don't get there within the next five minutes I'll cancel your appointment with history." She said dropping the sheet, throwing a hooded cape at him before walking out of his room, leaving the door open. "Don't forget to wear that." She ordered.

"Which side of the bed did you get out of this morning?" he grumbled as he trudged into the bathroom and splashed water on his face to wake himself up. He looked at the hooded cape and sighed, did she really expect him to wear it? Rolling his eyes he put it on and pulled the hood over his head vowing to himself to humiliate Rouge whenever he next got the chance.

He dashed around all over the place until he finally found a map saying that the theatre was only a few rooms away, also he noticed that he was on the other side of the base. This base was Huge!

He opened the door to see Mania glaring at him,

"Whoa! Chill bud I'm not going to attack you" Sonic said defensively.

"Sonic right? Well if you're the guest Rouge was talking about you'd better get down to the front row, she's about to start" He said and stepped out of the way and let Sonic go past. Sonic took a couple of steps and looked at Mania.

"Names S H kid. I was only kidding with ya the other day," Sonic said. He felt strange saying that but he'd realised before falling asleep that Rouge did have something of a point if what he'd heard was right and that Buttnik went mad every time he heard that there was someone called Sonic about.

Sonic looked at the 'theatre' it was more like a hall packed with chairs which everyone was seated in. The podium was slightly raised from the floor, behind and to the side was a white screen. He'd seen the pictures shown on the video brought up on that.

Sonic jogged across the floor and sat himself in the front row and grinned at Rouge who rolled her eyes at him and nodded to someone at the back.

The lights dimmed and a slideshow started, firstly with pictures of the green hills of the world, the forests and other beauties that Sonic could still remember that perhaps kids born after Robotnik's take over didn't.

"This was the world he knew. The world he grew up in and the world he protected from the evil we know as Robotnik. The grass was always green, the sky was blue and the sea was clear. Even the cities, which humans lived in, were grey. The grey colour itself didn't linger in the air nor was it depressing, as there were neon lights and bright colours on the shops. And knowledge that another good day was a nights sleep away." Rouge clicked a remote and the slideshow stopped and then changed picture to one of Sonic.

"Sonic the Hedgehog. Most of you will have seen the 10th year tribute to the hedgehog. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get a hold of Team Chaotix to make a presentation this time, nor has Knuckles been able to be found. However we do have today a hedgehog who has studied past evidence of the famous hedgehog and who, although has been said doesn't know the difference between himself and Sonic, can comment on what he thinks Sonic might have felt about the world today and how Sonic might see things." Rouge looked at Sonic who raised an eyebrow at her and tapped his feet.

"If after his presentation you would like some questions answered, write them on bits of paper and I'll get them to him and tell you the answers whenever I get around to them" Sonic heard distinctive laughter from various places in the audience, he grinned. Did this mean that Rouge was often swamped?

"So here he is. S H!" She said loudly, cutting off the laughter and clapped as she smirked at Sonic and moved away from the podium.

Sonic stood up, walked over to the podium and looked up at the full theatre.

"Um..."


	8. S H's Tribute To Sonic

Authors Notes:

Thanks to all who have reviewed. Oh I've only written one more chapter after this, I WILL continue it, but probably not until the half term break. I'm now a very busy young woman who doesn't have one whole day in the week to herself so.

Thanks to those who have reviewed. I'd also like to note that there are plans for more after chapter 9. I've just gotta get them written, there is a place where this is heading. Though I must admit it's kinda heading off in its own direction. Which I figure is good. Oh. Cookies for everyone who reads!

Passes out cookies

Enjoy

Review

Chid

* * *

"Um..." Sonic started with. 'Great way to start' he scolded himself. 

"As Rouge said I'm here to talk to you about Sonic the Hedgehog. He was the fastest thing alive and nothing could catch him once he got going. He could break the sound barrier, after all that was what originally tuned him blue." He said with a grin, only a few knew that his original colour had in fact been brown. And even less knew that he was the reason for Eggman to be the way he was.

"This hedgehog saw many people as different things, T..." Sonic stopped himself there. He'd almost said Tails, which would have been bad as everyone called Tails Miles now.

"Miles, Sonic often saw Miles 'Tails' Prower as a best friend and often a little brother who he loved as such. Amy Rose he saw as an obsessed fanatical girl who started to learn to look after herself just before he disappeared. I'm sure that if he knew that she'd started this group he'd be impressed with her determination whilst also devastated if he found out that she'd been robotosized after Shadow betrayed the very group he'd started. Shadow he had originally thought had died falling into the atmosphere after the incident at the Ark, yet he was back when everyone fought against the Metallix. If he were to hear about what Shadow had done, he'd not understand and wonder why. The Shadow he knew wouldn't have done something like that, yet apparently he did." Sonic paused and sighed, why had Shadow done that? Why had he let Eggman robotosize Amy? There had to be a reason but...

"Rouge, he only really knew her as a Bat looking for trouble and who usually found it one way or another." He smiled at Rouge who was chuckling to herself. Sonic grinned.

"If he saw what she was doing now he'd be amazed at the change from thief to Freedom Fighter leader." He admitted. He then sighed. "Knuckles the echidna was always a solitary one who is always serious and dedicated to his job. Maybe that's what he is doing now, if it was it wouldn't surprise Sonic. Cream and Cheese. Sonic would be impressed at how they have done through the bad times, how well Cream has grown into a young woman, and ashamed that he couldn't keep all the bad things from happening."

Sonic took in a few breaths and then looked back at the audience.

"He'd be proud that there is a place in the world where hope is still alive, where everyone is working together to fight against Buttnik and his ways." Sonic said with a nod to end it all, there was a tiny bit of silence before a few bouts of laughter and clapping, applause and some weird looks. Sonic didn't care though as he moved away from the podium and Rouge told him to go to her office and wait there.

He nodded and walked around the edge of the room and out of the door, noticing a glare from Lana and Mania but he shrugged it off and walked through the empty corridors. Walking became boring so he sped off and around for a while keeping an eye out for her office.

He skidded to a halt when he finally spotted it and went inside and saw that there were two chairs his side of Rouge's desk this time. He jumped, flipped and landed on his backside in one of the chairs and relaxed with his feet on the desk.

"Well that wasn't too hard" He said with a shrug and looked at the ceiling wondering what it was that Rouge was going to 'surprise' him with. He certainly hoped that it wasn't anything stupid or girly.

He found, rather quickly, that he was bored. There was nothing of any real interest in the room even the colours were drab. The jewels although real weren't anything special and none of them were chaos emeralds. And they were only really interesting when you had all of them, then he could have some fun.

He sighed and looked at a clock and saw how slowly the hands were moving, he doubted he'd even been here half an hour.

After a little longer, probably not even a minute he poked his ear with his fingers giving them a clean.

When the door finally did open Sonic jumped and fell out of the chair and landed with a thump on the floor and quickly got up and brushed himself off before looking at Rouge.

"You said you would be a couple of minutes. What took ya so long?" He said irritated.

"The tribute took a bit longer to wrap up than I thought it would." She said and looked at Sonic. "Kept yourself busy Sonic?" She asked.

"Sonic? Another new recruit called Sonic?" Came a voice, which seemed to Sonic so familiar yet at the same time he didn't recognise it. Sonic looked at Rouge and then at the door, which she was looking through into the corridor.

"Get your butt in here and find out, and close the door behind you Miles." She said and jumped over her desk to sit down in her chair, her own feet on the desk now. Sonic watched her, that voice couldn't be Tails' but hadn't she just called whoever it was Miles.

A couple of footsteps and the door clicked shut before he looked around to see a fox with two tails, goggles on his head and a grey body suit. The fox's hair was longer yet those three spikes on the front of his head were short. The tips of his ears were ragged and seemed to have oil or some black liquid in there.

"Tails?" Sonic asked unsure, it looked just like his buddy but taller than him by just under half a head.

"Rouge was this your surprise? A robot of Sonic?" The fox looked at Rouge waving a hand at Sonic.

"Hey buddy, watch who you're calling a robot" Sonic quickly retorted

"It's him Miles. He's flesh and blood, ask Cream. You know Cheese is hostile around robots yet Cheese took one look at Sonic and recognised him." Rouge said without even looking at either of them, she was inspecting a jewel. Sonic glanced at her and at the jewel; he knew that one hadn't been in the room before.

Silence filled the room, Sonic looked at Miles and saw him looking at Sonic as if judging and thinking before he finally came back with

"But he's so short, Sonic was always taller than me" he protested.

"Miles, you've grown up in the past 20 years, he's the same as he was all those years ago, and you on the other hand have grown taller." She pointed out looking at him unimpressed. "If you won't accept that it's him fine but whether you like it or not you need to take him to the Floating Island."

Both Sonic and Miles looked at Rouge and raised their voices as they both shouted out.

"What!" At the same time. Before looking at each other and then at Rouge.

"I've got Cream's mom to save, I promised her."

"Have you even thought of asking Knuckles, you know what he's like. He'll raise the defences and then throw him off and leave him to die!" Miles said.

"Guys, relax. Sonic you need to see Knuckles and think if you find the Chaos Emeralds you can go Super and sort this all out within a couple of days. Knuckles will see that it's Sonic he'll accept him. If you take Tilani with you he'll definitely let you on the island and be too busy with her to realy notice."

Sonic thought about that, the Chaos Emeralds. If they were all on the Floating Island then he'd be able to turn super and sort things out. Maybe Rouge had a point.

"Take Tilani up onto the Floating Island. You know how paranoid she is, I'll never get her to leave even if it IS to see Knuckles. Even if I did, Knuckles would still protect the emeralds with his life. You were there Rouge." Miles said with a hint of conspiracy in his voice at the end.

Rouge looked troubled and then looked between the two thinking.

"How is Knux anyway?" Sonic asked looking at Miles, he still wasn't certain that it was Tails but Rouge said it was but this Miles acted absolutely nothing like Tails had. Tails would have smiled at Sonic and been happy to see him.

"Prickly" Miles answered cryptically. Sonic rolled his eyes, that so wasn't the answer he'd wanted.

Sonic sat himself back down in the chair and looked between them.

"Made your mind up yet about what I'm going to be doing next then?" He asked looking at Rouge.

"Sonic I've already told you, if you go up onto the surface you'll be flattened, caught and probably robotosized. We can't afford to loose you, we now have something that Robotnik has no idea about and I plan to keep it that way. If you get onto the Floating Island you'll be even safer until you turn Super."

"Rouge, Knuckles won't let him on! The last time you really saw him up there he was paranoid, now he sleeps beside the Master Emerald and won't go anywhere without it or the Chaos Emeralds. There is no chance that he'll let Sonic on the island, let alone anywhere near the Emeralds."

"So I am Sonic now am I?" Sonic asked Miles, who looked back at him

"You're name might be Sonic but until I'm certain the Sonic I knew is still gone" He said coldly. Sonic just couldn't believe his eyes or ears.

"That's it! I'm outta here." He said. He had finally had enough. Flinging off the cape he opened the door and sped down the corridors knocking humans aside as he went, he sped through the corridors and past various rooms until he finally got to the hanger, it was the only way he knew that he would be able to get out. He doubted if he could find the way back into the sewers. A hanger meant doors that could be opened to get out of.

"S H report back to my room immediately!" Rouge's voice seemed to shout; Sonic guessed that there was another one of those speakers in here as well.

But that didn't stop him; he dashed right to the end, right past several planes of various styles and make, and opened a doorway by spinning into it. He stepped out into fresh air and took deep breaths before stepping forwards and almost right off the edge of a cliff and down into water. He looked down and then up and saw water as far as the horizon, well whatever polluted kind of water there was out there Sonic certainly didn't want to take a dip in that. Looking around he spotted a tiny path leading up along the side of the cliff and he followed it.

It didn't take him long to get to the top and he looked around to see that he was at Mystic Ruins, or what was left, and that the path and hanger were under the factory built where Tails' house used to stand.

A loud hooter sounded and made Sonic jump, it came from the factory. He wondered what had made that but the need to speed overtook any curiosity he had about the factory.

He turned around, picked a direction and sped off as fast as his legs would take him, it certainly wasn't long before he broke the speed of sound and became a blue blur dashing across the land faster until he slowed himself down in the middle of a desert. He finally stopped at an oasis and looked at the pool of water, it was clean and looked like water was supposed to and was no deeper than his knees. He picked some up with his hands and drank some whilst pouring some more over his head.

"Who walks in my territory without my permission?" Came a deep voice, Sonic looked around and standing on a pile of sand slightly higher than him was a figure, blocked out by the sun they seemed slightly taller than him, a hedgehog with spikes that curled upwards at the tips.


	9. Betrayal?

Authors Notes:

Well here we go chapter 9. And in all honesty until about a week and a half ago this were all the chapters I had written.

This is definitely a turning point in the story.

Please note that after this chapter I cannot guarantee regular updates (whatever they are) as I need to write the chapters after 10.

You'll be looking forwards to that, I've got an extra large chapter planned on paper. How that translates onto computer is a completely different matter!

So as usual I ask you read and review. Though here's a question for you. It won't affect anything I'm just curious as to what you think the Chaotix crew are doing? Or have been doing; I know where they are and what's currently happening to them I just want to know what you think!

Enjoy

Review

Chid.

* * *

"Hey buddy, mind moving out of the light?" Sonic said looking at this hedgehog, whoever it was, unimpressed.

"Sonic?" They asked and slid down the sand bank and stood in front of him. Sonic got a good look at the hedgehogs black colouring with red stripes.

"Shadow?" He asked, the hedgehog looked okay, not really having changed much if at all since he last saw him.

Hope flashed in Shadows eyes before he turned away shaking his head,

"Just another mirage" he muttered. Sonic looked at Shadow confused.

"You calling me a mirage?" He asked the obvious. Shadow stopped and turned his head and looked at Sonic,

"You always are" Shadow said gravely. Sonic jogged over to Shadows side.

"Has being called a traitor gotten to your head and what possessed you to go to Eggman and get Amy robotosized? No one will tell me," Sonic said to Shadow who just ignored him and continued on. Sonic took a couple of steps back jumped and curled into a ball and threw himself at Shadow knocking him over. Sonic looked down at Shadow after uncurling and looked at the hedgehog looking up at him in shock and awe.

"Sonic?" He asked again, Sonic rolled his eyes and lifted his arms into the air,

"What is it with people and not believing it's me!" Sonic shouted out asking anyone who would give him an answer as he walked back and sat under one of the palm trees surrounding the oasis, he leaned against the tree and stretched.

"So what happened?" He asked, looking at his friend who was still gaping at him like he was a ghost or something. "Keep that up and you'll be dribbling. Not good for the image." He said with a smirk as he watched Shadow close him mouth and look at him almost uninterested.

"Say what faker?" He asked. Sonic smiled and gave a small chuckle,

"That sounds like the Shadow I know," Sonic patted the sand next to him, "Everyone keeps telling me you turned traitor, is it true?" Shadow looked troubled and sat himself down and leant back against the tree.

"Information. Amy was never supposed to have gone on that mission; it was a group of humans who were barely trustworthy. The mission was to blow up a factory, they wouldn't have been able to do it." Shadow sighed, "Amy made a last second decision to go and by the time I knew what had happened it was too late, I got the chance to talk to her. I told her why I'd done it and she forgave me whilst crying. I..." Shadow looked into the distant.

"So you're a traitor then?" Sonic asked unbelieving.

"I was sure Robotnik had you captive and I was given access to his database and I found out that he hadn't but that he was sure you were still out there somewhere waiting until he slipped up. When I got back I passed out some information I'd gotten about next upgrades on robots but they kicked me out of the base, one of the humans had made it back and informed everyone that they had been ambushed by Robotnik himself saying it was all thanks to me. They believed him, and when they took a look at my information they scrapped it not trusting it and threw me out."

Sonic thought over that and then looked at the ground.

"Ouch. So Amy knows you're not a traitor then?" He asked, Shadow nodded,

"Won't make a difference though, she's been robotosized and there's nothing I can do to help because they'll kill me on the spot,"

"Who will?"

"Robotnik's robots and the Freedom fighters." Shadow stood up and splashed some water over his body, "this is the only place left where I can live in peace."

Sonic stood up and shook his head,

"The desert? How long have you been living here? 15 years?" He asked his voice getting louder. "What good is living here? Why don't you go blow up some of those factories or help Tails?" Sonic paused and looked down at the grains of sand slowly moving as a warm breeze blew past. "Miles..." He said sadly.

"So you've met the fox? Did he recognise you?" Shadow asked looking at his friend concerned.

"He didn't think it was me, he wouldn't accept it. And I've got things to do, Cream's depending on me." Sonic said looking up into the sky and sighing.

"Sonic, the world is depending on you, from what I was told about your adventures before I met you it always has done and always will. If you ever have kids, perish the thought, they will be depended on as well because of who their father is." Shadow pointed out. Sonic looked at him and then shrugged.

"That's life. But since you're hanging around here with nothing to do you're gonna have to help me end this and take down Eggman."

Shadow gave a huff and shook his head.

"Sonic, you expect to take him down after 20 years, in which his technological advances have been numerous in count, and succeed? Getting anywhere near his main base is almost impossible, and entering there is through one way and one way only. The front door, there's no back door or hidden passageway that we've seen or known of. Maybe and this is a huge maybe, you might be fast enough to reach the front door without being blown apart, but he has blast doors thicker than walls as his front door, each with a mechanical lock upon mechanical lock. Sonic I doubt even you could get in."

Sonic looked at Shadow,

"Well you've changed," he stated.

"And despite how much you haven't the world has. What's your story anyway, how come you're the same hedgehog as you all those years ago? From what I'm seeing and hearing you haven't changed a bit."

Sonic sighed and shrugged.

"Dunno buddy, one thing I'm relaxing, next thing I'm in the special zone a few days later and I'm back where I left and the worlds gone crazy." He said tapping one hands fingers on the sand.

"The special zone?" Shadow asked with a questioning look.

"Yeah weird and crazy place that is. Took me a while to find my way back out again." Sonic stopped but Shadow looked confused. "One way in and one way out, but the way out moves."

"Why not stay, why go into the zone in the first place?"

Sonic gave a shrug and stretched out his muscles.

"Something different, weird place. No Buttnik to worry 'bout. And the next time you visit the place you'll know why staying there is a stupid idea." He said and then jumped up onto his feet.

"So gramps, you gotten any slower in your old age?" Sonic teased, a race was just what he needed, no thinking just the feel of the wind on his face.

"Gramps!? I'll show you, faker, who's lost their touch. Prepare to loose!" Shadow retorted and then shook his legs and pointed northwards.

"I'll race you to the highest point of the tallest mountain." Shadow challenged.

"You're on!" said Sonic and the pair dashed off at the same time heading northwards towards the mountains that were hundreds upon hundreds of miles away.

Shadow ran fast and hard, sure he'd run every now and then but Sonic may have a point he may not be as fast. But then again, he was ageless. He couldn't loose!

However Sonic was confident, as always, that being the fastest thing on the planet wouldn't stop him from winning. He decided not to break the speed of sound but get close, he wanted to win but he'd rather not leave his pal in the dust and dirt too far behind him.

It took neither of them long before they passed the edge of the desert and were running on earth once again. Most of the earth was hard and cracked. Neither even paused when they reached a huge canyon. Sonic jumped off the edge rolling into a ball speeding down the side whilst Shadow just ran straight down until seeing Sonic pass in a ball and followed suit rolling up and catching slightly.

At the bottom they uncurled and ran once again, Sonic let Shadow catch up. As they ran right up the other edge neither was winning or loosing, it was an even race.

Once on the other side and over a few hills in the distance the mountain peeks were clearly visible. Both Sonic and Shadow looked at each other, grinned, and pushed themselves to go faster.


	10. Here we go, the start of a new adventure...

Authors Notes:

Here we go! The big 10 and seeing as today's me birthday it's extra long.

This chapter is in two parts, I'm thinking about splitting the chapters up from now on. Seeing as what is about to start happening I'm seriously thinking about having the chapters split into two halves.

Thanks to ALL of my reviewers! It's great having a huge bunch of reviews to look at and smile at.

So, thank you too: SonikkuSL, Celestial the Hedgird, Skarecrow, Az The Dragon, Trouble.

Hehe, cake for all!

Enjoy

Review

Chid.

* * *

Two blurs sped across the ground. One was blue whilst the other black, the few blades of grass that had survived were standing tall and bold, only to be blown almost right out from the ground by the speed of the two hedgehogs. 

As they approached the mountainside they smirked at each other and took different routes up the side of the mountain, running and jumping where they needed to until eventually after a very swift mountain climb they both reached the top. Sonic about half a millisecond before Shadow did.

"Knew it! Getting slow gramps!" Sonic smirked and chuckled as Shadow tried to push him off the mountaintop. "Shove off Shadow." He finally said giving the black hedgehog a nudge.

Sonic looked down, most of what he could see was an eyesore, it was disgusting, and the pollution was evident from this high up. He could see the jet-black plumes of smoke rising from places unknown. He could see the desert was huge from here, and in all that he could see, as far as the horizon, there was only one forest and that was tucked into the centre of the mountains with a mini mountain in the middle. It was a strange sight to see, a lone forest amongst all the grey, a splash of green.

"Certainly changed a lot. All of it Robotnik's doing." Shadow placed one of his hands on Sonic's shoulder. "I had hoped to stop this. When the world needed you, you weren't there."

"You were. Did you put all of your heart into it Shadow?" Sonic asked whilst brushing Shadow's hand off his shoulder. "Didn't you try and go Super? Rouge seemed keen on me going with Tails to the Floating Island and changing."

Shadow winced at that

"The last chaos emerald was found after I was booted. Anyway Knuckles won't let anyone near the island. I'd like to see you try."

Sonic brightened "A Challenge? About time, right where is the island?" He asked whilst rubbing his gloved hands together.

Shadow shook his head. "You aren't going anywhere hedgehog. The Floating Island's location is known to two furies in the world. Miles and Knuckles."

"Figures," Sonic muttered and then looked down at the forest, and without another word to Shadow he sped off to the forest.

Shadow sighed and took a glance at the desert, which had been his home for so long.

"Here we go" He muttered and then sped off down the mountainside after Sonic. He figured there was something off about the forest Sonic was heading to. The forests which Robotnik kept, all had Robot Access Roads, this one didn't appear to have one.

Sonic glanced behind him at the mountainside as was glad to see a black blur following him.

However, due to Sonic not looking where he was going he ran straight into something cold and metal.

The clang that echoed out made his ears ring. Not only that but his face and body ached from running so fast into whatever it was.

"Ow" He muttered and pushed himself away and looked up to see a golden metal robot that seemed to be made of circles rather than blocks, 'strange kind of new machine Eggman's made' Sonic thought to himself.

"Intruder, leave now or face the consequences," The robot 'said' though Sonic raised an eyebrow, not only did it look bad, it sounded worse. Almost like rusted metal trying to sing. Cringe worthy.

"Whatever" Sonic causally replied before speeding off.

Shadow however stopped and from a safe distance looked at the robot confused.

"It can't be."

Sonic was expecting an attack from behind but when none came he wondered if what the others had told him was a load of bullshit.

He dashed through the forest; it was nice to have proper ground under his feet. Ground which had received water, either dry or muddy, OR made of metal.

'How does Rouge manage to live in that place?' He wondered as he finally skidded to a stop in front of the mountainside, a bridge over to the mountainside seemed to be the only way over there, fast running water under his feet. The sound of fast rushing water all around.

'Scared?' He asked himself and started to cross the bridge. The wood was sturdy but seeing as it was the only thing between him and the water he was a bit nervous.

He was three quarters of the way across when the bridge dipped some more. Sonic looked behind him to see a smirking Shadow.

"Not afraid of water are we?" He asked walking causally across the bridge as Sonic glared fiercely.

"Yeah right gramps. Don't trip"

Shadow glared at Sonic who continued once again to walk over the bridge.

"This place looks familiar" Sonic mused to himself, or at least that was how it was intended.

"Seen one bridge across a river, seen 'em all. Anyway didn't they say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness faker?" Sonic chuckled at that.

Sonic's ear twitched as he heard something at the other end. The bridge wobbled and then with a further noise, the strain or rope before snapping, the two ends of the bridge became disconnected from the edges. Sonic sped across the bridge and headed for the edge. Launching himself off of the falling wood he reached out for the grounds edge. His hands barely gripped it but he hung on for dear life.

Sonic tried to get a grip for his feet, if he could then maybe, just maybe, he'd avoid the water and flip himself up onto the safe ground.

Looking up at the sound of someone approaching he saw boots which seemed somewhat familiar, continuing to look up he was baffled by the trousers but the silhouette was familiar. The silhouette was of probably the most gullible thing in the world.

"Join the traitor in hell!"

Sonic received a boot to the face and the force literally ripped him from the edge.

As Sonic fell he looked back up at the one who had kicked him off. The face was cold and harsh, yet apart from that he looked just the same. Well the trousers had been a throw off.

Sonic hit the speeding river with a splash that was several feet in the air. He sunk quickly but it didn't matter too much as further on the water was drained into a network of pipes and tunnels until finally it poured out of a tube. Sonic spied Shadow on a brick platform and called out just before he hit the water again, he failed around and eventually caught the edge of the platform with one hand, finding foot grips he hauled himself out and rolled onto his back panting fast.

He HATED water!

Shadow was coolly ringing his spikes out.

"Don't mind water huh?" He asked and chuckled when Sonic shot him a glare.

"Shut up gramps" Sonic retorted and started to ring his own spikes out after sitting up.

"So who was it?" Shadow asked, his red eyes curious yet cautious after all he had his own suspicions as to who it had been.

Sonic wasn't really paying attention as he was looking around the huge half water filled place. He looked at the stones making the platform under him and the walls around.

"Okay now I know I'm not dreaming. I've been here before!" Shadow raised an eyebrow as he stood up and gave his shoes a tapping to check the boosters were still working.

"Deja-vu?" He asked and Sonic jumped up and shook his head.

"If I saw who I thought I just saw and I'm where I think I am." He stopped when he realised that what he'd been about to say wasn't going to make any sense at all.

"Time travel messed with your brain faker? Hold on, what brain?" Shadow teased as Sonic cleaned his ear out with his finger looking casual, finding a piece of earwax and flicked it at Shadow.

"If we are in the hydrocity zone then what I want to know is why this place is sitting in the mountains." He rubbed his cheek, "And where he learnt to kick like that."

* * *

Rouge was having a panic; she had been flitting around the base trying to find Sonic. However as someone had found, he'd gone out of the hanger.

"Cream!" She shouted as she flew into the gym. A group of humans looked at her pausing in their workouts, where they could.

"Get back to work. Cream!" Rouge yelled out again. Cream poked her head out of her office.

"How can I help you Rouge?" She asked sweetly yet it was plainly obvious she was being sarcastic in her tone.

"I want a word." Rouge walked over, Cream rolled her eyes and stepped aside to see that Miles was already sitting in the office.

Most of the office was perfectly organized, one small desk was bundled with papers, making a small pile in the middle, and the room had a relaxed feel about it. Sofas and comfortable chairs preferred over the kind of chairs which Rouge had in her office. The walls were all pained cream.

"He's gone Rouge. Just let it go and forget you ever saw him" Miles told her coldly. Rouge glared at him.

"You'd let him run into one of Robotnik's machines and have him robotosized?" She half shouted. Cream locked the door and shook her head at the two.

"He might not be a robot Rouge. What about the possibility of him being a clone?" Miles looked up at Rouge with a raised eyebrow. Rouge paused at that, she couldn't be certain that he wasn't a clone except well ... maybe...

"No Sonic would ever take orders from Robotnik, it's against his nature."

"There's always brainwashing" Miles retorted without a pause.

"Oh for! How many excuses have you thought up for why it can't be the real Sonic?" Rouge asked loudly. Cream sat down in her chair, her hands folded on her lap. She was glad that Sonic was back, and yet she didn't want the hedgehog's return to get between the three friends.

"I'm being realistic. I'm making perfectly good reasons as to why it can't be Sonic" Miles reasoned.

"You just don't want to get your hopes up. How about this for a good reason why it could be him. They never found a body! Even Robotnik would have been happy with a body because then he could of and would have bragged that he had personally killed Sonic!" Rouge had screamed that, her face was now a bright red. Cream stood up suddenly.

"STOP IT!" Both Miles and Rouge looked around, shocked at the rabbit. It wasn't often she shouted. "Rouge sit down and I'll get you some water. Miles please, put your mourning behind you and accept that the possibility that it may well just BE Sonic. Now I know he dashed off but where might he have gone?" She asked calmly as Rouge sat down next to Miles as she poured Rouge some water into a paper cup.

"Cream, you've..."

"I've nothing Miles Prower." Cream interrupted "IF he was Sonic where would he go?" She asked and passed Rouge the cup of water who sipped from it. Miles sighed.

"Sonic would probably have just picked a direction and run. Especially if he'd been locked up in a small area for a day or two, even if it meant leaving a mountain of food behind." He told them, gazing into his own paper cup of water.

"So he could be almost anywhere in the world?" Rouge asked looking a bit peeved.

"Sonic wouldn't go near water. So any chances of him being in the middle of the ocean are practically nil." He added without really thinking about it. When he realised his words he frowned, no he knew he couldn't accept that it was possible that Sonic was back. He was gone now.

"Miles, maybe you should get back to the Floating Island. Knuckles will probably be waiting for you." Cream said gently, Miles looked up at her to see a kind smile, no grown up fierceness behind it, just Cream.

"Yeah you're right. Rouge just leave it be and get back to what you were doing before. It's been nice to see you again but promise me you'll forget about this supposed Sonic. Even if it were Sonic he wouldn't call for help until the last second, if ever, so leave him to it. Anyway unless Sonic wasn't to be found he'd keep speeding off until he was in a place alone. Why d'ya think it took me so long to find him? I mean at least where he'd been hanging all those years ago when he'd vanished?"

Rouge shook her head.

"I can't Miles. It's him, I know it and I won't just go back to being the bat I was, damnit I've gone some 'hope' back in my heart." She admitted and then shrugged, "time to step up to the kind of things we used to do."

Rouge flicked the cup into the bin and smiled at the two.

"Miles, nice to see you again. Cream I'll be along later with some plans that'll been finalizing. Oh and if Dan shows his face dump some water on him for me will ya?" She asked and without another word she unlocked the door and flew out. Cream looked over at Miles with a raised eyebrow but he just shrugged and put his cup in the bin.

"It's been nice seeing you again Miles. I'm glad you're still okay." Cream gave Miles a hug who then returned it.

"And I'm glad you're okay as well. It's been too long since I was last here" Miles ran a hand over Cream's cheek with a smile and left the office. With a shake of her head and a smile on her face Cream looked over at the messy desk.

"Cheese, I know you're over there. You can come out now" She called out, a pile of sheets shifted a little and then the Angel chao flew out chattering with joy.

Cream laughed and then picked up a clipboard and headed for the door.

"Come on Cheese; let's get some people into shape"

Cheese shot out of the door almost slamming straight into an aqua coloured hedgehog.

"Cream? I just wanted to let you know I'm finished and heading for the showers" She said and walked off towards the shower rooms.

Cream went to ask for proof, that she'd finished, but just shrugged and put a cross on her clipboard and started to call out names and check their progress.


	11. Floating Island Grounded

Authors Notes:

Finally I present chapter 11 for your viewing pleasure.

First off I'd like to not that there are a lot of jumps here between characters. I get the feeling that this is how the rest of it will go. It seems to work, from my point of view, and it gives you the reader a better grasp of what's going on at the time.

A BIG thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far. I probably would have stopped doing this ages ago if it wasn't for the reviewers.

So here is Chapter 11. Bare with the story, you shouldn't get lost. Too often .

Enjoy

Review

Chid

* * *

"It's him sir. No doubt about it."

"I trust your word however I'll send Rose to check him out. You on the other hand will stay where you are. If he comes back or someone finds him you will inform me immediately!"

"Your wish is my command."

* * *

"So where are we then?" Shadow asked Sonic as they tried to find their way around whilst avoiding as much water as possible. 

"If I'm not dreaming then we're on the Floating Island."

"Seems a bit grounded to me" Shadow commented dryly

"My point. Last time it dropped the Master Emerald was broken. From what Rouge and Tails were saying Knuckles was guarding it well." Sonic was looking around for a sign of a way out which didn't involve water. So far he hadn't spotted one.

"Well it was floating the last thing I knew. Maybe your imagining things faker." Sonic just rolled his eyes.

"I swear next time I see that idiot I'll punch him so hard he won't know what hit him" Sonic promised himself.

* * *

"Heh, sounds like him. Looks like him. I can't be though, he died or something years ago. He's even dragged the traitor into its lies. Endangering us all." A shadowed figure was squatted in a hatch, looking down at the two hedgehogs walking right past a loop the loop. "If the island was floating I'd flush them out. Though if they find a way out I'll dispose of them and leave Miles to find a place to burry them."

* * *

"Where will the exit to this place take us?" Shadow enquired, not noticing the far off figure watching them. 

"Haven't a clue, it's been a good few years since I was last here." Shadow rolled his eyes looking up.

"If we go straight up?" Sonic stopped and looked up

"Worth a try." Sonic scanned the roof of the place with his eyes and then saw a small flash of light and focused on it.

"Interesting, I mean OI!" Sonic shouted out, he could see plenty of things around he could use to get there, it looked like a hatch. Perfect, a way out. However there was someone or something in the way. "GET OUTTA THE WAY!"

"Make me faker," He shouted, his voice was harsh and ragged.

"Sounds like a clone of you" Sonic teased Shadow, who glared at Sonic and then at the shadow.

"Get out of the way or we'll MAKE you move" Shadow warned.

"I'd like to see you try, traitorous hedgehog"

Sonic rolled his eyes. He could guess who it was and if it was 'oh boy' he didn't need another headache.

"Hey, knucklehead! Just get out of the way"

* * *

"And if I don't hedgehog?" He asked. He wasn't going to just let these hedgehogs roam the island. He wouldn't let them out of here. 

Something beeped, he looked at his wrist. A small computer panel on a Velcro strap around his wrist. A small map of the island flashed up and a small dot was approaching the island. After another moment or so it came up with a message, the top bar filled with text.

'Miles: Got news for you.' He frowned and pushed a button on the side.

"I've got intruder problems, they're in the water system," He said and then pressed another button and it sent the message to Miles.

He looked back down at the shouting hedgehog. He hadn't heard anything of what they'd just said and shook his head, stepped back and started to close the hatch.

"Sonic was never so much of a windbag" he said before moving into the small tunnel and snapping the flap shut. He'd go back to the underground shrine; Miles would meet him there.

* * *

Sonic shook his fist and looked at the water with a sigh. 

"What's his problem?" He asked glancing at Shadow who shrugged

"Your face?" Sonic glared and then looked forwards.

"I'm outta here" and walked back to the loop the loop and ran around it a few times building speed before he sped out and jumped across a huge gap and because of his speed kept on going. He took advantage of his speed and any platform he could, whether moving or still, to take him further and further away from the point where they'd entered and closer to a way out.

Shadow raised an eyebrow, his finger twitched, he missed his chaos emerald, it certainly would have sped things up. He ran around the loop a couple of times before following, his boosters making the job of running easy.

* * *

"Knuckles!" Miles' voice ran out as he ran through the tunnels looking for the chamber, despite his many years of residence on the island and he still got lost. 

"Miles" Came Knuckles' harsh voice. Miles stopped and turned left down a tunnel he'd just passed and looked sheepish.

"Guess I still get lost" he said and chuckled before turning serious, "Everyone's flipped at the Freedom Fighters base, I mean I don't care if it looks, sounds or is as fast as Sonic it isn't, I mean itcan't be him. He's gone." Miles perched on one of the shrines steps. Some years ago Knuckles had moved it into the island.

"The traitors on the island, as is something remarkably like Sonic" Knuckles told the fox calmly.

Miles jumped up as if he'd just sat on a pin.

"Shadow's on the island? Knuckles why did you tell me before?"

"Firstly he's only just got here and secondly you're the surveillance expert."

Miles looked flabbergasted.

"Fine I'll send some troops down to flush them out."

"You don't think I hadn't thought of that?" Miles raised an eyebrow but Knuckles didn't notice. "That would work if we were floating however we're not. I've trapped them down there out of the way."

Miles just nodded.

"I'll send in some surveillance and if that sonic is the same one who I saw earlier I'll radio Rouge. Maybe now she'll believe me."

Knuckles nodded and watched Tails go off. He wanted to go to the base or Station Square for a change. It had been a while since he last saw Tilani and he was missing her dearly. However his duty came first. She knew that, he'd tried to persuade her to come to the island before but it hadn't worked. Sighing he looked at the map of the island on his miniature computer.

He had been wary of technology before, all of the cameras and robots Miles had made, but they had been useful. Miles had helped him with his technology in more ways than just surveillance.

"I'm watching you" He said quietly to himself and watched the two dots that were Shadow and 'Sonic' moving through the water system.


	12. Soggy Hedgehogs

Authors Notes:

Well here it finally is, chapter 12. I'm sorry to my faithful readers that it's taken this long to produce.

Kicks the many versions she stared,

Anyway getting to the point. I want to seriously thank everyone who has reviewed, all 31 of them. Makes writing easier.

My Beta reader now has a companion so I've got two very skilled beta readers who I owe a lot.

Next chapter could be up whenever I finish it I'm afraid however as soon as I get back something else from my beta readers I'm going to be updating the first 5 chapters. Putting it simply they stink, not properly read over and need editing. So look forwards to that.

As always I don't own the characters which Sega made.

Once last note, I've added the V> so that it's obvious where the breaks are. Nothing else seems to work so this SHOULD be the final choice I make for this.

Enjoy

Review

Chid.

* * *

Sonic was starting to get fed up, he'd been going and going and it was starting to make him feel like he was going around in circles. Then again thinking that whilst going around a loop the loop meant that in a way he was right.

Shooting from another loop and launching himself off the end of a tube, flying through the air as a blue streak he glanced behind him to see a black blur following his trail. Shadow was still with him, which was good.

Looking back at where he was going he was more than a little shocked to see that the next platform was still quite far away; despite his speed through the air he was going to miss it. Panicking he flailed his arms and legs, in desperation, trying to get himself propelled forwards enough to grab the ledge that was far out of his reach.

Falling swiftly he looked around for anything, a floating platform, a tube, something that would mean he wouldn't touch the water. However there wasn't, so with a few steps running on the surface it wasn't long before he started to sink down into the clear water. It was so cold and wet!

Shadow skidded to a stop when he saw Sonic shoot down, missing the next ledge. He strolled up to the edge of the blue tube, hung on and then peered over smirking as he saw Sonic sink surrounded by air bubbles from his flailing.

"One wet hedgehog" He said to himself and then looked around. It looked as if there wasn't a way up to the ledge and there wasn't anywhere else to go from this platform, so Shadow reasoned that they were meant to go down into the water. Having no other ideas he jumped off and after a quick descent hit the water with a large splash, sinking down after Sonic.

Sonic touched the bottom and after a look around realised that there wasn't a way back up to the surface of the water. He looked around for air bubbles, anything that would give him something to breathe other than water. He was almost already out of breathe because he hadn't taken in any air before touching the water thinking that he'd be able to get back out right away. Looking around, and eventually up, he spotted Shadow heading towards him. He looked confused but then shrugged and started the slow process of walking underwater, waving a hand over his shoulder to encourage Shadow to follow him.

Shadow touched the bottom and soon caught up with Sonic as he found the water easier to move through, mostly because he wasn't afraid of it. He tapped Sonic on the shoulder and pointed to an underwater tunnel and the bubbles of air rolling their way out. Sonic nodded and they made their way over, Sonic helping himself to the air first. Whilst Shadow just enjoyed the feel of the water all around him and eventually found he had to shove Sonic out of the way so that he could get some air.

V>

Miles frowned trying to find 'Sonic' and Shadow with the small flying robots he used for surveillance; he just couldn't find them. It was seriously starting to bug him now; the only thing he could think of was that they were underwater but he knew how much Sonic had hated water.

'Stop it Miles Prower! You know Sonic's gone; he's not coming back. You'll never be able to take his place and he is gone. Just get on with it and get rid of the intruders' He told himself with a sigh and then went back to searching Hydrocity with the robots.

"Where ARE you?"

V>

Slowly making their way through the tunnel, narrowly avoiding getting squashed on several moving platforms, they finally found that there was a way to climb out and Sonic shot forwards with fresh determination.

As soon as Sonic's head broke through the surface of the water he started to make his way to the closest solid thing which would get him out of the water.

Shadow emerged a few moments later and looked around the place where he had come up. There was a waterfall a little distance away, and they had come up in a pool a little way down from the waterfalls' pool. Shadow was impressed at the sight of the waterfall. After many years in the desert it was heart warming to see such beauty untainted by Robotnik's rule. The sound of the waterfall filled his ears and he was sure he heard birdsong as well, but he could easily have been imagining that.

Sonic pulled himself out of the pool and lay panting heavily on the grass, that lined the ground, one hand over his chest and the other clutching the earth beneath him.

"Never again" Sonic said quietly and Shadow chuckled over that one, pulling himself out of the water. He stood up looking down at his dripping body and started to, once again, wring out his spines.

"I wonder what Rouge would have to say if she found out that the 'Great Sonic the Hedgehog' was afraid of water." Shadow calmly commented whilst he tried to dry himself out as best he could.

"You tell anyone and I'll kill you" Sonic sat up and swung a soggy leg at Shadow who easily stepped out of the way.

"I'd like to see you try faker." Shadow challenged but then looked around, "Any idea where we are now?" He asked curiously.

Sonic stood up and shook his body trying to dispel water from his fur, only to have some if not all of it frizz in all directions. Shadow glanced over and upon seeing it, he fell over in hysterics. Sonic gave Shadow a death glare and then quickly patted his fur to try and level it back down again. He looked around and shrugged.

"Haven't a clue" To Shadow it was probably one of the most unhelpful things he could think of; however he was too busy laughing at the moment.

Sonic glared some more and then stepped over and swung a leg to boot Shadow and get him to shut up.

Shadow's reaction to the oncoming foot was to grab it and then with some effort he flung Sonic over him and Sonic landed right back in the water with a loud Splash, causing Shadow to laugh more.

Sonic, now getting really ticked off, climbed back out again and lunged at Shadow.

V>

Knuckles was still sat on the shrines steps now eating a fruit which he'd taken from the underground store. He was looking at the map on his small computer and a frown was on his face. He wasn't too sure what to do next. He hadn't expected the pair to get out, in fact he was certain that there hadn't been a way out, unless Miles hadn't sealed all of the exits, which knowing the fox didn't sound right but it was still a possibility. However he now had the problem that the traitor and a Sonic-look-a-like were back on the surface of the island and a threat once again. So he finished off the succulent pear shaped fruit and then headed out for Miles' workshop to inform the fox that they now had a serious problem.

Miles had given up and was in the process of calling his robots back when Knuckles strode into his workshop.

"Miles we have a problem"

"Knuckles! Oh yeah I know, I can't find them in Hydrocity, I'm sure they are there but I just can't find them." Miles said regretfully to Knuckles, he even dipped his head and tails as he said it.

Knuckles shook his head,

"They're not there Miles; they found a way out and are now back on the surface." Knuckles told him and then tapped his small wrist computer. Miles looked shocked.

"What! They can't be, I sealed off all the exits. Maybe, maybe they found another way out, an old tunnel we didn't know about?" Miles started to ramble about possibilities while Knuckles rolled his eyes, sighed impatiently and waited for Miles to stop. However after a few more moments he couldn't wait any longer.

"MILES!" He shouted. The fox actually jumped off of the ground and looked at Knuckles shocked but then realisation hit him.

"Oh sorry Knuckles." He apologized. Knuckles nodded and then waved a hand around the workshop.

"Send something up to the surface and find out what they are doing here on the island. I need to know whether I need to kill them or not" He said. Miles winced at the idea but nodded.

"I'll get on it"

V>

After a lot more fighting and shoving around both of the hedgehogs were soaking wet again and it was Shadow who finally stopped it all.

"Sonic! As much as this is fun watching you flail around in the water, aren't we wasting time?" He asked and once again, for the countless time that day, wrung out his spikes and checked that the boosters in his shoes were still working. When they did he was a little surprised that they actually worked, and weren't completely drenched.

Sonic glared, all of his fur was soaked through and through, he could feel his entire body was wet and he was cold from the water.

"You started it" Sonic stated and then ran on the spot to warm his legs up, sending some dirt flying into the air as he did. "Let's find the shrine, see what Knucklehead is doing and then get the emeralds and go."

Shadow shook his head,

"Fine. Any idea where the Shrine is?"

"Haven't a clue" Sonic replied casually and just picked a direction and started running. Shadow clenched his fists in silence for a few moments before he shot after Sonic.

V>

A metallic pink blur shot across the lands ruled by Robotnik, a cloud of dirt behind it. Any 'citizens' who saw the blur hid away in fear. They knew what it was and it frightened them. Those who had been alive during the times of Sonic the Hedgehog still remembered her. So full of life and now the taker of many lives.

Fear filled their hearts as they hid. They did not want to be the ones who got in it's way.


	13. Worries, Concerns, Memories

Authors Notes: Okay I would like to apologize for the time it has taken for this chapter to reach the internet, in my own defence this chapter HAS been unlucky and it's been beta read I think three times now but still it didn't make the net, why? Because I kept loosing it. .

Anyway, this is where things start to get heated and I've got some more chapters, I know it's sad but I hope to have at least one new chapter every month. Much more manageable than the schedule I had before.

Also on another note some of the earlier chapters are going through a rewrite because I saw how absolutely terrible they were.

I'd like to thank all of those who have reviewed, past present and future for your support. Without it I'd have never written so many chapters and that's the honest truth.

So then, welcome to chapter 13.

I'm fed up of this thing not allowing double spaces, I'm sorry for all of the lines but it'll have to do as it won't accept anything else.

Enjoy

Review

Chid.

* * *

Cream was filling out forms, not the most exciting thing she ever did however it came as part of the job, though it was getting late and she was getting more and more tired. They bored her so much, Cheese had fallen asleep. So taking a break she picked Cheese up and then opened the office door and locked it behind her and headed for her quarters. 

She was quietly humming a happy tune to herself, things had gotten a lot more hectic around here since Sonic had shown up again, and now she was trying to catch up with the paperwork and found herself consoling Rouge who was starting to panic at not knowing what to do.

The bat in question suddenly flew around the corner and bumped into Cream knocking them both to the floor and Cheese flew and fell onto the ground a short distance away, waking the chao.

"Cream!"

"Rouge!"

"Cream, I just got word. They found him." Rouge sounded excited yet Cream could see the worry in Rouge's eyes, something was wrong here.

"But?" Cream prompted as she stood up and brushed her long dress down to get rid of the dirt which had clung to her dress.

Rouge sighed and then shook her head,

"Not here Cream, this is serious" Rouge stated and then flapped her wings and looked around, "my office is closer" she said and then slowly started off. Cream nodded and picked up Cheese and comforted the confused and disorientated chao and then followed Rouge even though she knew the path well.

Rouge unlocked the door and held it open for her friend and once inside locked it and sat herself down in her large chair.

"Sonic's got company Cream, and it's not good"

Cream looked confused, Sonic couldn't have had company unless he'd found Amy but she knew it wasn't. That only left Knuckles and Miles but they wouldn't worry Rouge.

"The traitor?" Cream asked looking concerned, "but Sonic knows what he did doesn't he? Why are they together?" Cream asked curious as Rouge sadly nodded.

"Miles told me that Knuckles himself saw the two together and they weren't bickering, they looked like they were working together. What am I supposed to do now Cream? I really thought it was Sonic, guess it wasn't." Rouge sighed feeling stupid and that she'd condemned the group to death.

Cream shook her head.

"No Rouge, it _is_ Sonic, we both know it. He might be with, Shadow, but maybe … maybe …" Cream sighed and sat herself down on the chair in front of Rouge's desk. Her eyes downcast and upset.

"Yeah, that's how I feel"

Silence between the friends filled the room, their eyes were filled with uncertainty and the need for sleep yet their minds were keeping them awake.

* * *

Miles sighed; he didn't know how Rouge was going to take this. The bat had become even more reserved, than she already had been, over the years and now he'd just told her something that she probably, if given the choice, she wouldn't want to hear. He'd 'hung up' with a goodbye but he hadn't heard one back. 

Shaking his head he couldn't figure what to do next. The bots had gone out again, this time to the surface but it still didn't change the fact that he was confused as to the actions he should take. If it had been anything else he was sure he could think as what to do. However this was Sonic, no a robot. Miles sighed; he had to keep reminding himself of that as he kept forgetting.

Thinking of that robot or clone or whatever as Sonic clouded his mind, he knew it was happening but he couldn't help it. Something deep down still screamed in hope that it might really be Sonic, and it hurt. It hurt because he'd given up and he knew that Sonic would be ashamed.

Shaking his head Miles headed quickly off to find Knuckles, he needed a distraction and a serious one to stop these thoughts.

Knuckles was musing whilst sat at the shrine to the Master Emerald. He knew the whole thing with Shadow just like all of the others; it hadn't bothered him much because he was a loner anyway but he knew it bothered Miles and since the fox now lived alongside him, and after all he'd done it left him wondering.

"Knuckles?"

Knuckles looked up at the voice and nodded as Miles walked in.

"How did Rouge take the news?" He asked, he never had been much of a conversationalist, then Miles had shown up and over time he'd become a lot more talkative, though he still enjoyed the silence the island had.

Miles shook his head,

"I don't think it went down too well. I only hope she doesn't do anything stupid and just accepts that it's not him. Sonic….I mean, yeah Sonic wouldn't hang around with Shadow knowing full well what he'd done." Miles had paused when he'd used his name, he had paused to think over the use of it and then realised that he had used the name in the right sense. He was certainly confused right now and Knuckles picked up on that.

"It isn't Sonic, we know this Miles. We'll have to take that traitor out though. Capture the fake Sonic and see what's going on."

Miles frowned at first and then nodded.

"You going to go and catch them?" Miles looked at Knuckles with a little hope; he knew he couldn't do it. He'd nearly crumbled at the sight of _that_ Sonic when he'd been at the base. He wouldn't be able to actually attack it or catch it if he saw it again.

Knuckles nodded and then stood up and brushed off his grubby trousers and then walked past Miles before speaking.

"Stay here." He said and then jogged off into the various underground tunnels there were.

Miles frowned and went to tell Knuckles that the Master Emerald would be fine on it's own for a short while but it was too late, the echidna was gone. So with a shake of his head he sat himself down on the steps of the shrine and started what would be a long and boring wait.

* * *

Sonic skidded to a halt in front of a very large mushroom. Shadow skidded to a halt a few meters ahead looking confused at the mushroom and at Sonic. 

"We stopped for a mushroom?" Shadow said smirking.

Sonic looked at Shadow and glared.

"This it Mushroom Hill" he said and then jumped up onto the mushroom and with a very strange noise he was propelled up and off onto another much taller mushroom and then vanished out of Shadow's view.

"What the?" He said jumping up to follow Sonic, and found himself flying into the air; he landed on the taller mushroom and saw Sonic smiling from a platform not far off. When Shadow was once again shot into the air he waved his arms trying to maintain some semblance of control in where he was going, when he landed again he didn't quiet land on his feet and found himself flying over to the platform. Shadow landed on his feet this time, glad to be on solid ground, he cast his gaze at the mushrooms he'd just used to gain such height so quickly.

"Mushroom Hill?" He asked and turned and looked out and saw just that, a long sloping hill filled with mushrooms on stalks of all sizes with the tops ranging from red to green and even, oddly enough, blue.

"Mushroom Hill" Sonic chuckled and patted Shadow on the back. "You'll get it soon enough, it's all about balance." He said and laughed as Shadow glared at him. Sonic dashed off again and jumped onto another large fungus and started to have a laugh as he tried to go as far as he could on the mushrooms. It might not have been the fasted way to get some places but the routes that could be taken were many and it was a laugh.

Shadow raised an eyebrow at Sonic and quickly sprinted after him, only to catch up with the blue hedgehog by running across the floor and only using the mushrooms to gain height to other parts of the hill.

"So why is this place important?" Shadow asked.

Sonic didn't reply for a little while and then he dropped down onto the floor and ran alongside Shadow.

"Thinking about it I actually remember meeting Knux here. Eggman had tricked him, gullible git. Anyway he tried to do me in around here somewhere" Sonic laughed at that, thinking back all that time to when Tails had been flying the biplane they'd been cruising around when they'd landed on the island. Things were simpler then, it must have only been a couple of years ago to him but, to Shadow and Knuckles it would have been at least 22 years more so but he couldn't be bothered to think how many.

Shadow suddenly struck out at Sonic, knocking him right into a mushroom stalk.

"HEY!" Sonic yelled and Shadow just put a finger to his mouth.

"What?" Sonic glared and tried to spot the reason for Shadow's sudden and rash action. Several bots went flying overhead and Sonic frowned at them, this wasn't good at all, he looked at Shadow and got up and strolled back to where he had been running once the bots were gone.

"What the? What are Eggman's bots doing here? I thought you said this place was Eggman free?"

"Those are too old to be Robotnik's creations. It was more likely to be Miles'. If they are flying around it means they know we're gone from the water system. If they find us they'll bring the whole defence system down on us."

Sonic raised an eyebrow unimpressed at that and then chuckled.

"I'd like to see that" After all, he was the fastest thing alive and never refused a challenge.

"No Sonic, you wouldn't" Shadow cut in, he knew of only a small portion of the defensive system and that was a fair few years ago now. He didn't want to know the kind of system they had up and running now.

((see ANC))

"You sure about that traitor?" Knuckles asked, dropping down from a large mushroom, the system had shown him where they were, luckily he'd only been a short jog away and now he'd sort them out. Standing at his full height he looked over both of the hedgehogs, Shadow looked reserved whilst Sonic looked to be a little confused, though that was masking anger.

"Knucklehead! Where've you hidden the Chaos Emeralds?" Sonic asked, Shadow looked at Sonic with surprise at how idiotic the 'blue wonder' could be and rolled his eyes muttering something about being akin to a donkey's behind.

"No surprises that you've come looking for them. I won't let you have them and destroy the world!"

So with that Knuckles charged at Sonic, a fist raised ready to punch the hedgehog.

* * *

ANC Authors Notes Continued: Now as any of my readers knwo I don't generally add notes at the bottom however I wanted to ask something, if anyone has a way around my problem with the spacing if you could email me I'd be incredibly greatful as it's driving me up the wall. 


	14. The Conflict Begins

Authors Notes:

I'm VERY sorry that this chapter has taken so long to arrive here. I would indeed lavish you with reasons and excuses except you don't want to hear them. So with that I bid many MANY thanks to all who have been reading these chapters and keeping me from dropping this entire project down the drain for good.

Special thanks to all of my beta readers.

Skarecrow

The Potato Masher

Kit

You guys know who you are and sometimes getting things done would be next to impossible without you.

I'd dedicate the chapter to you except I shall hold the honour for a better chapter.

So without further ado, (still not owning the rights to Sonic) I wish you a happy reading

Read

Review

Enjoy

Chid.

* * *

She, for it was a she under all of the metal, shot across the lands still searching, the mountains were getting steadily closer and still the robot had yet to find its prey. The mountains were where it was heading now. From there it would stretch out across the lands to find its prey and it would do it swiftly.

* * *

Sonic jumped up and over Knuckles as the fist hit the ground where he had been only moments ago.

"Slow mo!" Sonic chuckled and span around sending a kick towards the back of his red echidna opponent who dropped and rolled to the side and with a hesitation only Shadow noticed, got back up again and stood in a battle pose.

"You're a fake, it's a shame you didn't die when you fell into Hydrocity" Knuckles snapped and charged at Sonic again.

"Oh come on! It didn't work last time you tried that trick Knucklehead. What made you think it'd work this time?"

"What?" Knuckles queried, but kept the fight going and sent a series of punches at Sonic who ducked dodged and weaved as many as he could before an unexpected left swing sent him flying.

It was then Shadow jumped in, literally as he sent a flying kick at Knuckles, sending the echidna flying into the air himself, skidding on the ground when he landed however it failed and landed on his backside, sitting up he glared at Shadow.

"The traitor" He growled and then rolled back and then flipped himself up and pounded his gloved hands together and sent a volley of jabs at what he saw to be the traitorous hedgehog. "You won't leave this island alive" Knuckled informed Shadow as he attacked.

Shadow wasn't having any of it and darted out of the way and ran around Knuckles a couple of turns and then stood still next to a tree and crossed his arms.

"Hmmf" Scoffed Shadow as he watched Knuckles wipe his brow and then turn to Shadow looking generally angry, then again that wasn't much of a change from what Shadow could remember of the echidna. "You won't beat me Knuckles" Shadow said filled with his old confidence.

Sonic slowly got up and headed back to Knuckles and Shadow and looked at the pair, he smiled when he saw Shadow acting like himself. He'd been here a few days and it had been getting annoying with everyone acting so different. Almost gave him a headache.

"Without that chaos emerald you're going down!" Knuckles shouted and before he realised the hit was coming his chin connected rather harshly with the floor, Sonic having landed a kick to his back.

"You know what Knucklehead! That kick hurt." Sonic exclaimed to Knuckles who slowly got back up again and backed off a little, finding that he now had Shadow on one side and Sonic on the other. Despite his fighting skills even he would privately admit that these were bad odds for him, at least, for now. Knuckles pressed a button on the side of his small computer and smirked at the two hedgehogs.

"Well what a shame," Knuckles commented with an obvious lack of sympathy.

"Tell us where the Chaos Emeralds are Knuckles and we'll leave you be." Shadow said simply.

Knuckled shook his head.

"I give them to you two and you'll destroy the Resistance and rob this planet of its only chances of hope. I can not allow that!" He growled and then charged at Shadow fists flying and a yell of anger and battle seemed to echo throughout Mushroom Hill.

* * *

Miles had been lightly dozing when he heard a distinctive beeping. Raising his head and blinking he looked around for the source of the beeps. He finally located it to be a console at the far end of the room, a red light was flashing. Getting up Miles peered at what it was and then raised his eyebrows and pulled out a keyboard and his fingers started to hammer the buttons, Knuckles had just called upon the islands defence system and this wasn't going to be pretty.

Across the island spherical robots rose from the ground and started off towards the area which Knuckles had indicated, at first their speed was slow but then after a while they accelerated and headed swiftly for Mushroom Hill.

Miles flipped a few more switches and then gave a sigh and then after a few moments thinking he typed in some extra commands and relayed them off to the robots around the island and gave another long sigh, walked back to the shrines steps and sat down on them. Now all he could do was wait. He hated this part of adventures, the waiting around for someone to ask for his help or… Miles sat upright as a realisation hit him. Things hadn't changed, there was an adventure going on and he was still sitting by doing the technical work and just being the side-kick! At first he couldn't believe it but then he remembered why he'd stopped being the hero.

He'd caused so many deaths by his attempt at being a hero after Sonic had gone he'd thought that was what Sonic would have wanted him to do but he'd messed it all up and killed rather than saved.

It wasn't good. He hated the memories and he knew he'd done wrong. As soon as his plane had crashed he wished he'd never tried, wished that he'd never thought of going out and trying to take Eggman on. He sagged his shoulders wishing he hadn't gone; maybe things would have turned out better if he hadn't gone. It had been that day, that day Tails had officially become just a name and a memory and Miles had stepped up to try and sort the mess out which Tails had left.

* * *

Knuckles looked between the two again; he knew Miles would have started to bring the defence system down on the area. Neither hedgehog would know what hit them.

Both hedgehogs knew something was up, the expression on Knuckles' face just told them that something was going on and neither hedgehog assumed it would be a good thing.

"Look you moron just tell me where the Chaos Emeralds are or I'll go look for them myself"

"You'll never leave the island alive" Knuckles threatened and Sonic rolled his eyes with a shake of his head.

"You're as bad as AMY!" Sonic shouted before both Shadow and Knuckles looked at the blue hedgehog in shock.

"What?" Sonic asked looking between the two; it was almost as if he'd declared his allegiance to Robotnik, although he had to admit the way this was going that would almost have been welcomed.

"How Dare YOU!" Knuckles gave a loud roar of anger and charged at Sonic with speed which shocked the speedy hedgehog, his shock caused both fists to be planted into his chest sending him spinning backwards and flying through the Hills area before he connected with the stalk of a large mushroom.

"Uurrrr" was his only comeback to that.

Shadow watched Sonic fly with a measure of awe, he didn't think Knuckles possessed such strength but then again the echidna was mostly muscle. Muscle which was suddenly turned on him as Knuckles turned and charged at him. Shadow jumped easily out of the way and slammed into the echidna whilst in a ball and bounced off the echidna to land on something metal.

"Ah" He said aloud before thinking 'shit'

* * *

"Where is he? What's keeping him so long?" Miles asked himself whilst he paced, sitting still whilst something was going on wasn't something he was good at and right now he wanted to be out there to make sure the traitor was taken down, how he could have done that to Amy was beyond him. Amy had done nothing wrong in her life and had in fact started the Resistance.

Miles shook his head as he approached one of the many terminals in the underground network and booted it up; entering various passwords before checking upon files he hadn't gazed upon in years. Photo's from 20+ years ago of when he lived a much more carefree life. Even Robotnik wasn't half as serious as he had become but as it turned out, the man had a drive to become world leader that none of them had anticipated. With Sonic gone it was almost as if no one had faith in anyone and had almost just given up on hope.

That's when Amy and Shadow had started the resistance, Miles looked at a publicity picture which they had tried to use, it made him chuckle but he could still feel tears welling in his eyes.

Amy hadn't exactly been a close friend of his but she was always there to make him laugh when she went chasing after Sonic. Even Sonic found it funny at times; of course of often because he was the one being chased but Amy always had that spark of life.

However now it was gone.

Because of Shadow.

* * *

Sonic rolled his eyes slowly as he felt his body being lifted.

"Wha?" He asked in a dazed state and blinked heavily to see something golden and metal. "Hu?"

Looking around he saw a dozen of other robots of exactly the same kind aiming various weapons at him, he tried to move but the grip of the one lifting him from the ground was absolute. His arms were pinned to his sides however his legs were free.

"And what exactly do you think this is going to achieve?" Sonic asked loudly, hearing Knuckles' grunts not far away.

"You'll be crushed faker, along with the traitor!" Knuckles yelled before a spray of dirt and grass flew over the robot covering it and Sonic.

Shadow had recognised the robots and to be perfectly honest he wasn't in the slightest bit happy to see them. Knowing what their strength could do he'd spent the last 5 minutes evading their attempts to catch him, knowing full well that within moments they might start firing and his chances of escaping unharmed dropped dramatically.

Not only was he avoiding the robots but Knuckles was also swinging punches and with the almost explosive way he was hitting the ground the dirt was flying and to be honest it was getting frustrating.

"SONIC!" He yelled hoping that the speedy hedgehog didn't plan on being held captive forever; he was slamming as hard as he could into these robots and he wasn't even making a dent. It was beyond frustrating.

Sonic chuckled.

"Is the ultimate life form having problems disposing of a few robots?" He taunted as his feet started to spin, round and around. Faster and faster until they started to become a blur, obviously it was harder for him because there was nothing to run on but that wouldn't stop him.

Sonic smirked as he made his legs rock a little and with some effort his legs touched the metal of the robot and that was all he needed. Something to run on.

All Knuckles was aware of was a strange noise and then a flash of blue before one of the guardian robots hit the floor with a loud clang. This was before a blue blur started to spin him around on the spot.

Neither noticed a flash of cream light surrounding all but two of the robots.

'Sonic!' He thought angrily and swung into the blur in the hopes that Sonic was going so fast he'd hit the fist whatever happened.

However it wasn't to be as Shadow slammed once again into Knuckles' back and sent the echidna to the floor.

"Not only are you getting slow in your old age gramps but it seems you also are getting stupid" Sonic taunted as he scratched the top of his nose whilst Shadow glared.

"Humph" He folded his arms and then smirked. "Well if the faker doesn't want my help finding the Chaos Emeralds I'll go back to the desert"

Sonic looked shocked and glared.

"You wouldn't dare!"

Shadow chuckled

"Watch my dust"

"GAH!" Sonic gave an angry growl as Shadow started to pace off. He didn't ask for help, he didn't need it.

Yet something inside reminded him that the times were different and he DID need help. All the help he could get.

"Shadow..." He didn't get to finish his sentence as he was bowled over and pinned to the floor.

"KNUCKLES!" Miles' voice shot through the clearing. Both hedgehogs and the echidna looked around in confusion. Knuckles frowned, he would have to let go of Sonic in order to reply, or maybe not.

"Voice activation, reply." Knuckles said whilst glaring at Sonic. "What's the situation?" He gruffly answered.

"Knuckles, the robots. They've vanished." Miles' nervous voice came over the speaker.

"WHAT!" Knuckles looked around and saw only two robots in the area where there had been at least 20 before. Shadow was avoiding one whilst another lay on the floor as if deactivated. He couldn't understand why but that wasn't the current issue. "Where did they go?" He demanded an answer; they were part of the islands defence system.

"I don't know Knuckles. I can't trace them anywhere on the planet!"

* * *

"HEY WATCH IT!" A gruff voice shouted as he landed on the squidgey topping of a mushroom.

"You're no lightweight yourself!" A younger voice shouted out after the first hone. A grumble followed.

Three new figures had just seemingly teleported onto the top of a smallish mushroom not far from where Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles were fighting. Unaware that they were that close to the fighting they were mostly interested in one thing.

"Hey guys, we're finally home!


	15. A Reunion of sorts

Authors Notes: It's been a while, okay I lie it's been a VERY long time since I last updated and 4 years is beyond a joke.

I truly want to apologize to those who have been eagerly awaiting updates who never got them I promised myself I would do it but I never got to it.

So there's a couple of people I really want to thank for reminding me how much I loved this story and that I left it unfinished.

From Deviant art: MokonaStephy88

From : Little Ghostie, dragonfyre and metal shadow.

Oh and as always to my beta's.

So this chapter is dedicated to you guys.

* * *

The dust clouds came to a halt as she scanned the grounds around the mountains checking multiple databases as she did. Below her lay a large area which according to her maps had been empty however her visual units were telling her otherwise, Flybots had noticed this before but it had not been deemed worth sending out others to investigate.

"Orders" A message was sent back to her Master for what was to be done.

"Investigate," was the answer she received and she started to descend the mountains heading for the new area.

* * *

"Will you get off!" The gruff voice demanded and after much struggling and a friendly fight of green scales and yellow and black stripes the mushroom collapsed and the pair hit the floor and had to brush off splattered mushroom from their bodies whilst their silent friend had seen the problem and moved out of the way just in time, his reactions as perfect as ever.

"You two should really have learned not to fight each other by now"

"Be quiet, we're finally home. Be grateful that I got us here"

"YOU got us here!" Shouted the now adult male bee. His voice deeper but he still managed to be as annoying as ever. "I was the one who found it!"

"Here we go again", the voice from seemingly nowhere said as Crocodile and Bee started to fight once again, this time for the false honor of getting them all home again.

* * *

"Say that again" Knuckles asked, slowly.

"They aren't anywhere on the planet. I can't find them. They've completely vanished!" Came Miles' voice in a panicked tone. Knuckles looked confused and Sonic took the chance and pushed up quickly making Knuckles' grip loose enough for Sonic to brake free and spun around and up into a tree before he stopped and looked down at Knuckles.

"Guess those robots aren't as good as you thought they were"

The reply he was given was a blaster shot from the robot currently battling Shadow. It must have been a misfire but it still took the branch clean off the tree and rather than fall Sonic jumped into the tree and then launched himself at Knuckles.

"Not at chance!" Knuckles exclaimed in a large amount of disbelief before he was tackled by Sonic and they started a brawl, Sonic's punches were fast but much weaker than Knuckles' slow but force filled strikes.

Shadow was hitting the robot as fast as he could, each blow finally starting to make dents until the robot finally keeled over, thanks to Knuckles who had been aiming for Sonic at the time but had missed when Sonic avoided the blow. Shadow zipped around to Knuckles and gave him a fast kick before he backed off.

"Where are the Chaos Emeralds Knuckles? Enough of this foolishness, if the world has any chance of returning to some semblance of peace you MUST tell us where they are"

"You mean the peace of death, of being encased in steel. Isn't that what you mean? Like AMY!" Knuckles got back up glaring at Shadow, hate filling ever fiber of his being as he stood there then.

"I had no idea that would happen and I did all I could for her. If it wasn't for that trip to Robotnik's Palace we would have lost nearly everyone. Blame the humans!" Shadow shook his head slightly; he could practically feel the glare Knuckles was giving off however his feelings were of deep felt regret and sorrow.

"Blame the humans; blame anyone other than yourself for the actions which you had direct control over?" Knuckles shouted, and then he dashed forwards with the full intention of ending Shadow's life.

Suddenly Knuckles was sent crashing into a tree. Shadow looked around in confusion as he certainly hadn't thrown a punch or a kick; Sonic was looking just as bemused as Knuckles was lifted up by the neck.

"Knuckles, calm down"

Knuckles glared at the seemingly empty space before him, he could feel the tight grip on his neck, he didn't splutter and thankfully there was enough of a gap to continue breathing.

"W-Who's that?" He asked confused, it couldn't be a robot of Robotnik's because he'd be dead or in a lot of pain. The voice sounded somewhat familiar but he couldn't think of who it might be.

Sonic walked over to Shadow looking confused.

"Let's get going, whoever is doing this must be on our side." Shadow said and Sonic nodded in agreement but as they turned to run off they saw that they had even more company standing looking over the complete mess that the three of them had created.

"Vector! Charmy!" Sonic said in surprise, he looked at the two and could see a fair amount of differences but the two were still familiar. Vector was still tall but instead of his usual headphones and armbands he was more muscled and had a robotic eye instead of his left, it just didn't look right but he supposed 20 years would do a lot of a person. Charmy wasn't small and a bit pudgy anymore, he had gotten taller, a hard hat on his head and his bright yellow and black stripes thinner until it made your eyes hurt looking too strongly at them.

"Sonic! I knew we'd find you" Charmy chirped, although with his deeper voice it just didn't sound right. Though he smiled and Sonic knew it was the same Charmy on the inside.

"I wouldn't get too excited Charmy, he's with Ihim/I"

Sonic rolled his eyes at that but then looked around, then over to Knuckles who was moving slowly to the ground.

"Espio?"

The only reply was a huff; Knuckles shoved the air and then glared at all of them.

"Chaotix, where have you been?"

"We'll tell you when things calm down, seems things are a bit problematic right now" Vector was keeping his eyes on Sonic and Shadow, making sure they didn't go anywhere.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Knuckles activated his communications device.

"Now what?"

"There's three extra people on the Island Knuckles what's going on?" Miles' voice resounded from his device, sounding more and more frantic by the syllable.

"Chaotix have shown up, how or why they won't say." Knuckles watches as Espio shifted back into view and walked around Sonic and Shadow.

"I'm getting fed up of being scrutinized at EVERY moment" Shadow growled, seriously getting fed up of being looked at, glared at and being hated all of the time. He hadn't agreed to help Sonic just to endure all of this.

"You're not the only one Shadow" Sonic replied and looked at Espio in a fed up manner. "What now?" he asked wanting to know what he was being looked over for NOW.

"Vector, it is him. I get the feeling that everyone's been thinking he's a fake but I think that this Sonic is Sonic"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, was it at all possible someone ELSE thought he was the real deal? He certainly hoped so! And about time as well!

"Knuckles! Something else is on the Island! It's one of Robotnik's robots… it's… oh no..."

Everyone turned to Knuckles in confusion, Shadow's brows were knitted together in concerned thought, and Sonic was looking at everyone else looking towards Knuckles who glared at them all whilst Vector, Charmy and Espio all looked thoughtful.

"Miles… what is it?" He asked cautiously.

* * *

"Mineral traces and foliage confirmed, location is Floating Island" The report was sent to his personal chambers, lounging in his soft but large chair he listened to the detailed analysis and smirked.

"Good, deploy troops and surveillance to last known Resistance location as well as Unit 1-13-25's location." This would be blood and fun.

* * *

"I…I'm not sure Knuckles, I can't keep up with it and make a visual lock but I fear the worst"

Knuckles nodded, "Chaotix, get underground. Miles is down there and will help co-ordinate, unless you want to help dispose of the garbage?"

Vector shook his head, walking between Knuckles and Sonic.

"Knuckles, it IS him. Didn't ya just hear Espio say so?"

"And I think you lot are delusional, you went off seven years ago and now show up out of the blue!"

Espio perked at this bit of information.

"Vector" he said quietly "we were in the Special Zone for only"

He finished his sentence but no one heard him as several trees exploded in a blast of fire and splinters. Sonic and Shadow leapt out of the way, Charmy darted behind Vector who like Knuckles shielded his face with his hands. Espio vanished from view and slipped away into the foliage until the moment was right.

Illuminated from behind by the crackling fire a metal being glided into view. Shadow took a glance and then looked away. Although metal all over there was still a hint of pink in the finish, probably a little joke on Robotnik's part to really rub the fact into the Resistance's face.

"Miles, sighting confirmed." Knuckles hesitated before he finished, the words were hard to say and they implied much more than just Robotnik's presence. "It's Amy" The worry and concern in his voice was heard down in the tunnels that riddled the Floating Island Miles froze in mid movement when he heard that mentioned, closed his eyes and prayed silently that it wasn't true he muttered.

"Oh no…"


End file.
